Federal Death Penalty

List of Federal Death Row Prisoners

RACE: White = 3

GENDER: Males = 3

TOTAL = 3

Clemency Note: On December 23, 2024, President Joe Biden com­mut­ed the death sen­tences of 37 out of 40 fed­er­al death row pris­on­ers to sen­tences of life with­out parole. Robert Bowers, Dylann Roof, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were the only three pris­on­ers to not have their sen­tences com­mut­ed. President Biden explained: ​“These com­mu­ta­tions are con­sis­tent with the mora­to­ri­um my Administration has imposed on fed­er­al exe­cu­tions, in cas­es oth­er than ter­ror­ism and hate-moti­vat­ed mass murder.”

NameRace/​EthnicityStateYear of SentenceOffense
Bowers, RobertWhitePA2023Convicted and sen­tenced to death for the mass shoot­ing at Tree of Life Synagogue.
Roof, DylannWhiteSC2017Convicted and sen­tenced to death for the fatal shoot­ing of nine parish­ioners in a church in South Carolina.
Tsarnaev, DzhokharWhiteMA2015Convicted for offens­es com­mit­ted in the Boston Marathon bomb­ing and sen­tenced to death for two of the victims killed.

Note: Names in [ ] are defen­dants whose con­vic­tion or death sen­tence have been reversed by the courts but the rever­sal is not yet final, or who are await­ing cap­i­tal retri­als or resen­tenc­ings after an ini­tial con­vic­tion or death sen­tence was over­turned. Those await­ing retri­al or resen­tenc­ing are marked with a caret (^). From time to time, this list may include defen­dants whose cas­es are marked with an aster­isk (*). This indi­cates that the defen­dant has received a ver­dict of death from the jury, but the judge has not yet issued a for­mal sen­tence. In the fed­er­al sys­tem, the judge is oblig­ed to fol­low a unan­i­mous jury rec­om­men­da­tion. (Source: Federal Capital Habeas Project.)

Because of dif­fer­ent def­i­n­i­tions of what con­sti­tutes being ​“on death row,” some orga­ni­za­tions such as the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel or the Bureau of Justice Statistics may have a slight­ly dif­fer­ent list of those cur­rent­ly under fed­er­al sen­tence of death. The DPIC total includes indi­vid­u­als whose cap­i­tal con­vic­tions and/​or death sen­tences have been over­turned and who face con­tin­u­ing jeop­ardy of the death penal­ty until their retri­al or resen­tenc­ing pro­ceed­ings are com­plet­ed, although those indi­vid­u­als do not have a valid death sen­tence and are pre­sumed inno­cent of the death penalty.

** Has co-defen­dant, as not­ed, also on death row.

*** States in bold have abol­ished the death penalty.

+ Has co-defendant(s) not on death row.