Close Search
Round Separator
Menu Search

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: 66 — 69

Apr 01, 1993

Sentencing for Life: Americans Embrace Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Contrary to the con­ven­tion­al wis­dom that Americans whole­heart­ed­ly sup­port the death penal­ty, the lat­est nation­al opin­ion poll released in con­junc­tion with this report shows that more peo­ple in this coun­try would pre­fer alter­na­tive sen­tences that guar­an­tee both pro­tec­tion and pun­ish­ment over the death penal­ty. Death penal­ty sup­port becomes a minor­i­ty opin­ion when the pub­lic is pre­sent­ed with a vari­ety of alter­na­tive sen­tences. Most Americans, how­ev­er, are unaware that the length of impris­on­ment embod­ied in these alter­na­tives is now the norm almost every­where in the country.

Read More

May 01, 1992

Justice on the Cheap: The Philadelphia Story

“Them with­out the cap­i­tal get the pun­ish­ment” is a well-worn phrase among those who have stud­ied the unequal appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty in America. Poor peo­ple fac­ing soci­ety’s ulti­mate penal­ty must rely on pub­lic funds to ensure they are com­pe­tent­ly rep­re­sent­ed, as the Constitution guar­an­tees. Yet, in more and more juris­dic­tions, pub­lic ser­vices of all kinds are being slashed for lack of ade­quate fund­ing. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is one such juris­dic­tion – a dra­mat­ic and graph­ic exam­ple of a nation­wide problem.

Read More

Mar 01, 1992

Killing Justice: Government Misconduct and the Death Penalty

Twelve years ago, when Jimmy Carter was in the White House, Gary Nelson was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to die for the 1978 rape and mur­der of a 6‑year-old child in Chatham County, Georgia, the kind of high-vis­i­bil­i­ty crime that exerts great pres­sure on police and pros­e­cu­tors to solve quickly.

Read More

Jan 01, 1991

Chattahoochee Judicial District: BUCKLE OF THE DEATH BELT: The Death Penalty in Microcosm

Nearly 20 years after the Supreme Court held the death penal­ty uncon­sti­tu­tion­al – large­ly because of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion – the death penal­ty in America con­tin­ues to reflect the worst aspects of our judi­cial sys­tem: racism, unequal treat­ment of the poor, a shame­ful­ly inad­e­quate legal defense sys­tem and abuse of dis­cre­tion by ambi­tious pros­e­cu­tors and oth­er politi­cians seek­ing high­er office.

Read More