Overview
As the time between sentencing and execution in the U.S. has lengthened from a few years to decades, the conditions of confinement for death row inmates have come under closer scrutiny. Some Supreme Court Justices have raised constitutional concerns about the physical and psychological effects of being held for extensive time in solitary confinement, separate from challenges to the death penalty itself. Many legal experts in the U.S. and elsewhere have concluded that this prolonged isolation is a form of cruel and unusual punishment, comparable to torture.
Many death row inmates suffer from mental illness, and the isolation on death row often acerbates their condition. Older inmates also suffer from increasing physical disabilities, rendering their ultimate execution a particularly demeaning action.
At Issue
The issue of extensive time on death row presents a dilemma: If death penalty appeals are rushed through the system, it might lessen the time spent on death row, but more innocent people will be executed and grave injustices will remain undiscovered. A thorough review of each case, with an openness to retrial upon the emergence of new evidence, has the side effect of keeping inmates in degrading conditions for twenty years or more. This inherent tension alone could lead to the end of the death penalty.
What DPIC Offers
DPIC provides summaries of the conditions and rules governing inmates on death row in each state. It also tracks the amount of time that inmates spend under these conditions. Finally, DPIC collects the important court decisions related to this issue.
News & Developments
News
Jul 16, 2019
Facing Prison-Conditions Court Challenge, South Carolina Moves Its Death Row to a New Facility

Amidst an ongoing lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of South Carolina’s death-row conditions, the state has moved its death-row prisoners to a different prison. On July 11, 2019, the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDOC) moved the state’s 38 death-row prisoners from Kirkland Correctional Institution to the nearby Broad River Correctional Institution (pictured), into a facility that had originally been built to house death-row prisoners in 1988. In a press release, SCDOC said the move “will address some of the concerns raised in a recent lawsuit filed on behalf of the…
Read MoreNews
Oct 05, 2023
World Psychiatric Association Releases Report Opposing the Death Penalty for People with Mental Illness or Development and Intellectual Disabilities
In July 2023, the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) released its report and position statement on mental health and the death penalty. The issues addressed in the report include: the imposition of the death penalty on prisoners with mental illness or developmental and intellectual disabilities, the overrepresentation of death-sentenced prisoners who have been socioeconomically marginalized, and the role of psychiatrists in death penalty cases.
Read MoreNews
Sep 05, 2023
Sole Woman on Tennessee Death Row, Age 18 at Time of Crime, Raises New Appeal Based on Youthfulness
Attorneys for Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee’s death row, filed a motion on August 30 to re-open her appeals based on a recent decision from the Tennessee Supreme Court. In 2022, the Court ruled in State v. Booker that mandatory life sentences in homicide cases are unconstitutional when imposed on juveniles, drawing on U.S. Supreme Court precedent that held that juveniles are less mature, more vulnerable to peer pressure, and generally less culpable than adults. Ms. Pike’s attorneys argue that Booker’s reasoning applies to all youthful defendants, not…
Read MoreNews
Aug 16, 2023
Judge Orders Hearing for Idaho Prisoner Who Faced 5 Execution Dates, Claims of Repeated ‘Psychological Torture’
Idaho U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill has ruled in favor of death row prisoner Gerald Pizzuto, indefinitely pausing his March 2023 execution date, and granting him a hearing in his claim that the state of Idaho violates his Constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment by repeatedly scheduling execution dates while knowing the state does not have the means to carry it out. “As Pizzuto describes it,” Judge Winmill wrote, “defendants’ repeated rescheduling of his execution is like dry firing in a mock execution or a game of Russian…
Read MoreNews
Apr 13, 2023
BOOKS: “He Called Me Sister: A True Story of Finding Humanity on Death Row”
In He Called Me Sister: A True Story of Finding Humanity on Death Row, author Suzanne Craig Robertson details her journey from reluctance to true friendship during her challenging fifteen-year relationship with Cecil Johnson, a Tennessee death-row prisoner, who was executed in December 2009. Using letters, poems, and a personal memoir written by Johnson, Robertson tells their mutual story of perseverance, recalling that “differences don’t have to be barriers.”
Read MoreNews
Mar 21, 2023
California to Close San Quentin’s Death Row as Part of a Broader Prison Reform
Death-sentenced prisoners in California will be moved out of San Quentin State Prison (pictured) and placed in other maximum security facilities, as part of a broad plan announced by Governor Gavin Newsom on March 17, 2023. The governor seeks to “transform” the state’s oldest prison into “a one-of-a-kind facility focused on improving public safety through rehabilitation and education.” The state launched a pilot program in 2020 allowing some death-row prisoners to voluntarily move to other state prisons. Under that program, more than 100 death-row prisoners have already been transferred out…
Read MoreNews
Mar 16, 2023
LAW REVIEWS— Decency Comes Full Circle: The Constitutional Demand to End Permanent Solitary Confinement on Death Row
A 2022 article in the Columbia Journal of Law & Social Problems presents both a historical overview of the practice of death-row confinement in the U.S. and the findings of a survey of the conditions on death rows in every jurisdiction with capital punishment in America. Regarding the use of highly restrictive confinement, the author states that “the system of permanent solitary confinement on death row has neither the weight of history nor the support of the majority in either contemporary practice or social values.”
Read MoreNews
Feb 28, 2023
NEW RESOURCES: Interactive Display Illustrates Conditions on Death Row
A joint research project begun by two Texas universities illustrates the confinement conditions of death-row prisoners, including areas such as visitation, health care, attorney visits, recreation, food, and opportunities for work. The Capital Punishment & Social Rights Research Initiative has created an initial infographic describing the conditions in Texas.
Read MoreNews
Jan 19, 2023
Lawsuit Alleges Federal Death-Row Conditions Violate U.S. Constitution and Human Rights Treaties
A Russian national on the U.S. federal death row has filed a civil rights lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the federal government’s use of automatic and prolonged solitary confinement to house individuals sentenced to death.
Read MoreNews
May 24, 2022
Florida Becomes Latest State to End Permanent Death-Row Solitary Confinement After Settlement of Conditions Lawsuit
Florida has joined the growing number of states that have ended automatic permanent solitary confinement for prisoners sentenced to death.
Read MoreNews
Mar 02, 2022
Melissa Lucio Files Motions to Vacate Death Warrant, Remove Judge and District Attorney Based on Conflicts of Interest
Lawyers for Texas death-row prisoner Melissa Lucio (pictured) have moved to vacate her April 27, 2022 execution date and remove the judge and district attorney in her case because of conflicts of interest stemming from their employment of key members of Lucio’s original defense team.
Read More