Executions in the U.S. 1608-2002: The Espy File

The ​“Espy File” is a data­base of exe­cu­tions in the United States and the ear­li­er colonies from 1608 to 2002. This list of 15,269 exe­cu­tions was com­piled by M. Watt Espy and John Ortiz Smykla, and was made avail­able through the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. Note: This is the lat­est ver­sion of the Espy File. Previously, this web page con­tained ​“The Espy File: 1608 – 1987.”

The files below fea­ture impor­tant infor­ma­tion about each exe­cu­tion list­ed in the Espy File, such as the name, age and race of each indi­vid­ual exe­cut­ed, the date of exe­cu­tion, and the method of exe­cu­tion used, but omit some infor­ma­tion, such as coun­ty of exe­cu­tion and the occu­pa­tion of the exe­cut­ed. To down­load the com­plete Espy File, vis­it the ICPSR web­site at www​.icp​sr​.umich​.edu/​NACJD (click ​“down­load data” and use ICPSR # 8451). Some infor­ma­tion in the Espy File dif­fers slight­ly from DPI infor­ma­tion since 1976, with respect to dates of exe­cu­tion and race of the inmate, but not the names, place or method of exe­cu­tion. In these instances, DPI has ver­i­fied through Department of Corrections’ web­sites and news accounts that the infor­ma­tion on DPI pages is cor­rect. For infor­ma­tion on more recent exe­cu­tions, see DPI’s Information on Executions in the U.S.

Please note that the Espy File is an incom­plete work, and that oth­er stud­ies fea­tured on this web­site may include exe­cu­tions not list­ed in the Espy File.

DPI’s dis­play of the Espy File data has been sort­ed in three dif­fer­ent ways for con­ve­nience in research­ing: Executions in Chronological Order, Executions in Alphabetical Order by the last name of the defen­dant, and Executions in Geographical Order, by the state in which the exe­cu­tion was car­ried out. In all of these files, the loca­tion giv­en is not nec­es­sar­i­ly the juris­dic­tion respon­si­ble for the exe­cu­tion. For exam­ple, an exe­cu­tion may have occurred in California but under fed­er­al juris­dic­tion. The loca­tion would be list­ed as CA. Consult the orig­i­nal Espy File data­base for complete information.

• Executions by Date
• Executions by Name
• Executions by State

The files are in pdf form and may be read with the free pro­gram Adobe Reader.

This infor­ma­tion is also avail­able in Excel for­mat.

Historical Leaders in Executions Since 1608

Using infor­ma­tion con­tained in the ​“Espy File” togeth­er with cur­rent infor­ma­tion, the states in the United States that have exe­cut­ed 700 or more pris­on­ers since 1608 are as follows:

* Executions as of December 31, 2020

For exe­cu­tions occur­ring after January 1, 2023, see our Executions Database.

Executions by Race of Defendants: 1608 – 2022

Below is the racial break­down of peo­ple exe­cut­ed from 1608 to 1972, com­piled from infor­ma­tion found in the ​“Espy File.” Also shown is the same break­down since the death penal­ty was resumed in 1976, com­piled from DPI race sta­tis­tics. For more infor­ma­tion, see Race and the Death Penalty.

*Executions through December 31, 2022

Numbers in paren­the­sis are the actu­al num­ber of per­sons of each race exe­cut­ed in the time period.

Executions 1608 – 1976