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 Special Reports
Feb 19, 2018
While it is not unusual for multiple states to schedule executions on the same day, it is rare that death warrants for three or more executions remain active the week the execution is scheduled to occur. States have carried out 3 or more executions on the same day 13 times since executions resumed in the United States in 1977, most recently on…
DPIC Year-End Reports
Dec 14, 2017
Public Support for Death Penalty Drops to 45-Year Low as Four More Death-Row Prisoners Exonerated in 2017. (Washington, D.C.) Executions and death sentences remained near historically low levels in 2017, as public support for the death penalty fell to its lowest level in 45 years, according to a report released today by the Death Penalty…
DPIC Special Reports
Dec 08, 2017
Stayed by Arkansas Supreme Court based on pending Supreme Court decision in McWilliams v. 4/17/17Don Davis10/12/903/6/9227WhiteWhiteStayed by Arkansas Supreme Court based on pending Supreme Court decision in McWilliams v.
DPIC Special Reports
Mar 23, 2017
On February 27, 2017, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson signed orders for an unprecedented eight executions to be carried out over a period of eleven days in April. We looked into this and found that, since states resumed executions in the 1970s, no state has ever executed eight prisoners in eleven days. Only four states have carried out multiple…
DPIC Year-End Reports
Dec 21, 2016
(Washington, D.C.) Death sentences, executions, and public support for capital punishment all continued historic declines in 2016. American juries imposed the fewest death sentences in the modern era of U.S. capital punishment, since the Supreme Court declared existing death penalty statutes unconstitutional in 1972. The 20 executions this year…
