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.
Reports: 51 — 55
Dec 01, 1999
The Death Penalty in 1999: Year End Report
The number of executions in the U.S. in 1999 was the highest for any year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. There were 98 executions, one-third of them in Texas. This 44% increase in executions from last year is partly the result of a large number of older cases facing an expedited federal and state appeals process.
Read MoreOct 01, 1999
International Perspectives on the Death Penalty: A Costly Isolation for the U.S.
Western Europe has abolished the death penalty; Russia commuted the death sentences of all 700 of its condemned prisoners to life; and the U.N. Commission on Human Rights has called for a moratorium on all executions. The number of countries that have stopped implementing the death penalty has grown to an all-time high of 105.
Read MoreDec 18, 1998
The Death Penalty in 1998: Year End Report
The number of executions in 1998 declined slightly from the record number in 1997. As of December 18, there were 68 executions in the U.S., down from 74 people executed last year (no more are scheduled this year). About half of the executions occurred in two states: Texas and Virginia. The total number of executions in the U.S. since 1976 reached 500. The number of people on death row again moved to a record high and now stands at 3,517, though the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported a 19% drop…
Read MoreJun 04, 1998
The Death Penalty in Black and White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides
The results of two new studies which underscore the continuing injustice of racism in the application of the death penalty are being released through this report. The first study documents the infectious presence of racism in the death penalty, and demonstrates that this problem has not slackened with time, nor is it restricted to a single region of the country. The other study identifies one of the potential causes for this continuing crisis: those who are making the critical death penalty decisions in this country are almost exclusively white.
Read MoreDec 01, 1997
The Death Penalty in 1997: Year End Report
The number of executions in 1997 easily surpassed the highest figure for any year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. As of December 15, 1997, there were 74 executions in the country this year, 18 more than in 1995, the previous record year. The last time more people were executed in a single year in the United States was 1955, when 76 people were executed. The executions this year brought the overall total since the reinstatement of capital punishment to 432. The national death row population also reached…
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