Below are reports released by the Death Penalty Information Center since its inception, covering subjects such as race, innocence, politicization, costs of the death penalty, and more. When opening a report, please allow the report page to load fully before selecting links to sections or footnotes. Most of these reports are also available in printed form from DPIC. For a copy of one of these reports, e-mail DPIC. For bulk orders, please download our Resource Order Form.
Reports are separated into Year End Reports, In-Depth Reports, and Special Reports. In-Depth Reports are DPIC's signature long, thorough reports on major death-penalty issues. These include "The 2% Death Penalty," examining geographic arbitrariness in capital punishment, and "Behind the Curtain," covering secrecy in the death penalty system. Special Reports are shorter, and typically address a specific event or question. These include DPIC's explanation of the 2017 spate of executions that were scheduled in Arkansas, and our analysis of the largest number of executions performed on a single day.
DPIC In-Depth Reports
Oct 01, 1995
As executions reach record numbers in the U.S., the system of representation for those facing the death penalty is in a state of crisis. Too many states encourage this malpractice by offering totally inadequate pay and resources for death penalty defense. Yet Congress is about to drastically curtail the opportunities for death row inmates to…
DPIC In-Depth Reports
Feb 01, 1995
A new national survey of police chiefs from around the country discredits the repeated assertion that the death penalty is an important law enforcement tool. Police chiefs rank the death penalty last as a way of reducing violent crime, placing it behind curbing drug abuse, more police officers on the streets, lowering the technical barriers to…
DPIC In-Depth Reports
Nov 01, 1994
Yet these same states, and many others like them, are pouring millions of dollars into the death penalty with no resultant reduction in crime. The exorbitant costs of capital punishment are actually making America less safe because badly needed financial and legal resources are being diverted from effective crime fighting strategies. The death…
DPIC In-Depth Reports
May 01, 1994
The rest of the country should heed the warning of the Texas experience before it embarks on a wholesale expansion of the death penalty. The death penalty in Texas is in a state of crisis. And the costs of the death penalty in Texas are in the hundreds of millions of dollars with no end in sight. During the period when Texas rose to become the…
DPIC In-Depth Reports
Mar 01, 1994
Racial minorities are being prosecuted under federal death penalty law far beyond their proportion in the general population or the population of criminal offenders.
