DPIC Reports

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.

Latest


DPIC In-Depth Reports

Jun 22, 2011

Struck by Lightning: The Continuing Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty Thirty-Five Years After Its Reinstatement in 1976

The United States Supreme Court approved the re-instate­ment of the death penal­ty 35 years ago on July 2, 1976. A major­i­ty of the nine Justices who served on the Supreme Court in 1976 when the death penal­ty was approved even­tu­al­ly con­clud­ed the exper­i­ment had failed. Four states have abol­ished the death penal­ty in the past four years, and…

DPIC Year-End Reports

Dec 21, 2010

The Death Penalty in 2010: Year End Report

2010 Election Results Confirm Poll Finding Majority Favor Alternative Punishments and Will Support Politicians Who Vote for Repeal of the Death Penalty. (Washington, D.C.) The coun­try expe­ri­enced a 12 per­cent decrease in exe­cu­tions in 2010 com­pared to 2009 and a more than 50 per­cent drop com­pared to 1999, accord­ing to a report released today by…

DPIC Year-End Reports

Dec 17, 2009

The Death Penalty in 2009: Year End Report

DPIC’s Year End Report: Death Sentences in U.S. Lowest Since Death Penalty Reinstated in 1976 11 States Considered Ending Capital Punishment dur­ing 2009 Budget Crunch. Supreme Court rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty in 1976, accord­ing to a report released today by the Death Penalty Information Center. Read The Death Penalty in 2009: Year End Report”…

DPIC In-Depth Reports

Oct 20, 2009

Smart on Crime: Reconsidering the Death Penalty in Time of Economic Crisis

Smart on Crime is a new report from the Death Penalty Information Center that explores the prospect of sav­ing states hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars by end­ing the death penal­ty. The report also serves to release a nation­al poll of police chiefs in which they rank the death penal­ty at the bot­tom of their pri­or­i­ties for achiev­ing a safer society.…

DPIC Year-End Reports

Dec 10, 2008

The Death Penalty in 2008: Year End Report

Executions resumed in 2008 after a de fac­to mora­to­ri­um was effec­tive­ly lift­ed by the Supreme Court fol­low­ing its deci­sion uphold­ing lethal injec­tion. But only the South returned to reg­u­lar exe­cu­tions, account­ing for 95% of exe­cu­tions car­ried out in the coun­try in 2008. The 115 sen­tences in 2007 was the low­est num­ber since the death penal­ty was…