DPIC Year-End Reports

Only Five States Conducted Executions and Seven States Imposed New Death Sentences in 2023, the Lowest Number of States in 20 Years. Florida’s Six Executions and Five New Death Sentences Responsible for 2023 Increase. For the First Time, More Americans Believe the Death Penalty Is Administered Unfairly than Fairly.

Key Findings Virginia becomes 23^rd state, and first in the South, to abol­ish the death penal­ty Seventh con­sec­u­tive year with few­er than 30 exe­cu­tions and 50 new death sen­tences New study finds one exon­er­a­tion for every 8.3 exe­cu­tions Federal exe­cu­tion spree ends, new admin­is­tra­tion halts all fed­er­al exe­cu­tions and announces pol­i­cy review

2020 was abnor­mal in almost every way, and that was clear­ly the case when it came to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the United States. The inter­play of four forces shaped the U.S. death penal­ty land­scape in 2020: the nation’s long-term trend away from cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment; the worst glob­al pan­dem­ic in more than a cen­tu­ry; nation­wide protests for racial jus­tice; and the his­tor­i­cal­ly aber­rant con­duct of the fed­er­al admin­is­tra­tion. At the end of the year, more states had abol­ished the death penal­ty or gone ten years with­out an exe­cu­tion, more coun­ties had elect­ed reform pros­e­cu­tors who pledged nev­er to seek the death penal­ty or to use it more spar­ing­ly; few­er new death sen­tences were imposed than in any pri­or year since the Supreme Court struck down U.S. death penal­ty laws in 1972; and despite a six-month spree of fed­er­al exe­cu­tions with­out par­al­lel in the 20^th or 21^st cen­turies, few­er exe­cu­tions were car­ried out than in any year in near­ly three decades.

Capital pun­ish­ment con­tin­ued to with­er across the United States in 2019, dis­ap­pear­ing com­plete­ly in some regions and sig­nif­i­cant­ly erod­ing in oth­ers. New Hampshire became the 21^st state to abol­ish the death penal­ty and California became the fourth state with a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. With those actions, half of all U.S. states have abol­ished the death penal­ty or now pro­hib­it exe­cu­tions, and no state in New England autho­rizes cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment at all.