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 Year-End Reports

Dec 15, 2004

The Death Penalty in 2004: Year End Report

Whether exam­in­ing death sen­tences, exe­cu­tions, the size of death row or pub­lic sup­port, cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment num­bers have dropped in a way not seen in over 30 years. In Texas, Houston‘s Police Chief, Harold Hurtt, called for a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions on cas­es from his coun­ty, where the police crime lab has been declared unre­li­able: I think it…

DPIC In-Depth Reports

Sep 01, 2004

Innocence and the Crisis in the American Death Penalty

This report cat­a­logs the emer­gence of inno­cence as the most impor­tant issue in the long-sim­mer­ing death penal­ty debate. The steady evo­lu­tion of this issue since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1976 has been accel­er­at­ed in recent years by the devel­op­ment of DNA tech­nol­o­gy, the new gold stan­dard of foren­sic inves­ti­ga­tion. This evi­dence has…

DPIC Year-End Reports

Dec 18, 2003

The Death Penalty in 2003: Year End Report

The death penal­ty con­tin­ued its recent attri­tion in 2003, with exe­cu­tions, death sen­tences, and the death row pop­u­la­tion all low­er than a few years ago. Public sup­port for the death penal­ty dropped to its low­est lev­el in 25 years. Executions are down 34% when com­pared to 98 exe­cu­tions in 1999.DEATH ROW: The size of death row is small­er than it was…

DPIC Year-End Reports

Dec 17, 2002

The Death Penalty in 2002: Year End Report

As in almost every year since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1976, the South led the U.S. Texas car­ried out 33 exe­cu­tions this year, near­ly half of the coun­try’s total exe­cu­tions (71) and near­ly 5 times as many as Oklahoma, the next lead­ing state with 7. since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed, 13 (62%) have been in Texas.

DPIC Year-End Reports

Dec 12, 2001

The Death Penalty in 2001: Year End Report

Throughout 2001, grow­ing con­cerns about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment were reflect­ed in a series of leg­isla­tive changes to restrict the death penal­ty, and exe­cu­tions declined sharply for the sec­ond straight year. For the first time since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed, the num­ber of peo­ple on death row also appears to be decreas­ing. A drop in the num­ber of…