DPI 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 DPI. 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 DPI’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 DPI’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.
 

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Reports

Apr 30, 2025

Immature Minds in a ​“Maturing Society”: Roper v. Simmons at 20

In 2005, in Roper v. Simmons, the United States Supreme Court held that the ​“Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments for­bid impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty on offend­ers who were under the age of eigh­teen when their crimes were com­mit­ted.” The deci­sion, after the exe­cu­tion of twen­ty-two peo­ple who com­mit­ted crimes under the age of 18 dur­ing the mod­ern death penal­ty era, marked the end of the juve­nile death penal­ty in the United States.

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Latest

Dec 19, 2024

The Death Penalty in 2024

Death Sentences and Executions Remain Near Historic Lows Amid Growing Concerns about Fairness and Innocence. President Biden and North Carolina Governor Consider Commutations of Death Rows to Remedy Systemic Problems. Four States Responsible for 76% of Executions. The num­ber of new death sen­tences in 2024 increased from 2023, with 26. The num­ber of peo­ple on death row across the United States has con­tin­ued to decline from a peak pop­u­la­tion in the year 2000. Public support…

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Nov 14, 2024

Fool’s Gold: How the Federal Death Penalty Has Perpetuated Racially Discriminatory Practices Throughout History

In 2020, President Joe Biden promised to end the fed­er­al death penal­ty dur­ing his admin­is­tra­tion and his Attorney General, Merrick Garland, acknowl­edged its many long­stand­ing con­cerns as rea­sons to pause fed­er­al exe­cu­tions pend­ing an inter­nal review of Department of Justice poli­cies and prac­tices. Project 2025, the prod­uct of a polit­i­cal con­ser­v­a­tive move­ment, calls for President Trump to ​“obtain final­i­ty” for all fed­er­al death row pris­on­ers. Before any deci­sion about future use of the…

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Jul 01, 2024

Lethal Election: How the U.S. Electoral Process Increases the Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty

Elected supreme court jus­tices in Georgia, North Carolina, and Ohio are twice as like­ly to affirm death penal­ty cas­es dur­ing an elec­tion year than in any oth­er year. This effect is sta­tis­ti­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant when con­trol­ling for the num­ber of cas­es each year. Changing pub­lic opin­ion means that zeal­ous sup­port for the death penal­ty is no longer a lit­mus test for elect­ed offi­cials in many death penal­ty juris­dic­tions. Today’s elec­tions fea­ture viable can­di­dates who criticize use…

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May 14, 2024

Broken Promises: How a History of Racial Violence and Bias Shaped Ohio’s Death Penalty

In January 2024, Ohio law­mak­ers announced plans to expand the use of the death penal­ty to per­mit exe­cu­tions with nitro­gen gas, as Alabama had just done a week ear­li­er. But at the same time the Attorney General and the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association are cham­pi­oning this leg­is­la­tion, a bipar­ti­san group of state leg­is­la­tors has intro­duced a bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty based on​“sig­nif­i­cant con­cerns on who is sen­tenced to death and how that sentence is…

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