Racial Justice Reports

The historical use of capital punishment in Tennessee shows a clear connection between the extrajudicial lynchings of the 1800s and 1900s and the state sanctioned death penalty practices of today. As one lynching expert notes, “[l]ocal traditions, situations, and personalities must be considered in any attempt to explain patterns of lynching….” This emphasis on locality parallels modern death penalty trends in Tennessee — as well as the rest of the nation — wherein death sentencing is heavily…

Oklahoma’s death penalty is at a crossroads. On August 25, 2022, Oklahoma executed the first person in a series of 25 executions set to occur nearly every month through 2024. The projected increase in executions in Oklahoma comes while the death penalty is in decline nationwide; 2021 had the fewest executions since 1988. Furthermore, Oklahoma’s planned executions are scheduled to move forward despite evidence that there are serious problems with Oklahoma’s death penalty that the state has done…