NEW RESOURCES: Updated Historical Execution Database Provides Unique Look At History of the Death Penalty in the U.S.

An updat­ed ver­sion of the ​“Espy File,” a data­base of exe­cu­tions in the United States and the ear­li­er colonies from 1608 to 2002, is now avail­able on DPIC’s Web site. This resource pro­vides detailed infor­ma­tion about each of the 15,269 exe­cu­tions record­ed dur­ing this peri­od and offers a unique glimpse into the his­to­ry of the death penal­ty in the U.S. For exam­ple, about 15% of those exe­cut­ed received the death penal­ty for crimes oth­er than mur­der, includ­ing 277 who were exe­cut­ed for slave revolt and 20 peo­ple who were giv­en the death penal­ty for aid­ing a run­away slave. In addi­tion, the data­base includes the names of indi­vid­u­als who were exe­cut­ed for crimes such as pira­cy (130), horse steal­ing (51), trea­son (43), deser­tion (40), witch­craft (35 — most­ly women), coun­ter­feit­ing (29), adul­tery (2), and con­ceal­ing birth (4).

The Espy File also pro­vides an inter­est­ing look into the meth­ods of exe­cu­tion that have been used in the U.S. Since the first exe­cu­tion in 1608 by shoot­ing, the coun­try has used near­ly a dozen dif­fer­ent exe­cu­tion meth­ods. Among those meth­ods are the more com­mon­ly known meth­ods of hang­ing (9,324), elec­tro­cu­tion (4,484), lethal injec­tion (620), gas (593), and fir­ing squad (142). Others exe­cut­ed dur­ing the past 400 years have been killed by blud­geon­ing (2), bro­ken on a wheel (12), burned (66), and pressed with stones (1).

The ​“Espy File” was com­piled by M. Watt Espy and John Ortiz Smylka. It was made avail­able through the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. The data­base con­tains the name, age and race of each per­son exe­cut­ed, as well as details such as the date of the exe­cu­tion and what method of exe­cu­tion was used. DPIC has adapt­ed this infor­ma­tion for eas­i­er use and has sort­ed the list in sep­a­rate files by state, by year, and by name of defen­dant. This infor­ma­tion, includ­ing a down­load­able Excel spread­sheet of the Espy File, is avail­able on DPIC’s Web site. It may also be found (in its orig­i­nal form requir­ing a sta­tis­ti­cal analy­sis pro­gram) on the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data’s Web site.
(Posted July 26, 2007). See DPIC’s Web Page on The Espy File. See also, Executions and Resources.