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

Electoral pol­i­tics dis­tort the fair­ness and accu­ra­cy of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, as evi­denced by new data and analy­sis on appel­late rul­ings and clemen­cy decisions Lethal Election: How the U.S. Electoral Process Increases the Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty

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 car­ried out.” READ MORE

The Death Penalty in 2023 : Year End Report

Only 5 states car­ried out exe­cu­tions and 7 states imposed new death sen­tences in 2023 , as more Americans say the death penal­ty is applied unfair­ly, rather than fairly. READ MORE

DPI Report — Compromised Justice: How A Legacy of Racial Violence Informs Missouri’s Death Penalty Today

Missouri is one of a hand­ful of states that has con­sis­tent­ly exe­cut­ed peo­ple in the last five years. Understanding the his­tor­i­cal appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty in Missouri helps our under­stand­ing of how cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is used today. READ MORE

New Resource: Updated Death Penalty Census

DPI’s data­base of more than 9 , 800 death sen­tences imposed between the Supreme Court rul­ing strik­ing down U.S. death penal­ty laws in 1972 and January 1 , 2024 details the sys­temic arbi­trari­ness, bias, and error of the mod­ern U.S. death penalty. READ MORE

DPI Report — Doomed to Repeat: The Legacy of Race in Tennessee’s Contemporary Death Penalty

The his­tor­i­cal use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Tennessee shows a clear con­nec­tion between the extra­ju­di­cial lynch­ings of the 1800 s and 1900 s and the state sanc­tioned death penal­ty prac­tices of today. READ MORE

News & Developments

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Dismisses New Evidence of Innocence and Denies Robert Roberson Habeas Relief

On September 11 , 2024 , the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ( TCCA ) dis­missed Robert Roberson’s request for habeas relief with­out review­ing the mer­its of any of his five claims, cit­ing a fail­ure to meet pro­ce­dur­al require­ments, despite the inclu­sion of new, pre­vi­ous­ly unavail­able med­ical and sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence in the appli­ca­tion. The TCCA also denied Mr. Roberson’s motion for a stay of exe­cu­tion, which remains sched­uled for October 17 , 2024 .

See What Utah Spent on Its First Execution in 14 Years

Taberon Honie was an American Indian from the Hopi-Tewa com­mu­ni­ty whose life was marked by pover­ty, sub­stance abuse, and gen­er­a­tional trau­ma. His par­ents were forced to attend Indian board­ing schools, which were noto­ri­ous­ly abu­sive and designed to strip Indian chil­dren of their cul­tur­al her­itage. They lat­er suf­fered from alco­holism and neglect­ed Mr. Honie and his sib­lings. Mr. Honie first tried alco­hol at age 5 and pro­gressed to hero­in and meth by the time he was a teenager.

Methods of Execution

Idaho Court Dismisses Longest-Serving Death Row Prisoner’s Post-Conviction Claim Against a Second Execution Attempt

On September 5 , 2024 , Idaho’s Fourth Judicial District Court dis­missed death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Thomas Creech’s post-con­vic­tion claim, which sought to pre­vent a sec­ond exe­cu­tion attempt on the grounds that it would vio­late the Fifth Amendment’s dou­ble jeop­ardy clause, Eighth Amendment’s pro­hi­bi­tion against cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment, and equiv­a­lent state con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­vi­sions. The state’s first attempt to exe­cute Mr. Creech on February 28 , 2024 was halt­ed because cor­rec­tion­al staff…

Article of Interest: Author John Grisham Says Texas Plans to Execute Robert Roberson, An Innocent Man

Best-sell­ing author of The Innocent Man and for­mer crim­i­nal defense lawyer John Grisham ​ “ nev­er, not once” believed that any of the hun­dreds of clients he rep­re­sent­ed were wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed. In a September 5 , 2024 , op-ed, Mr. Grisham writes that he just assumed the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem always got it right. Now, writ­ing for the sec­ond time about Robert Roberson’s case, Mr. Grisham acknowl­edges that was ​ “ a wrong assump­tion.” He argues that ​ “ Robert Roberson is inno­cent because the…

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Concedes Constitutional Errors in Marcellus Williams’ Conviction and Death Sentence, Urges the Court to Vacate His Conviction

On August 28 , 2024 , a St. Louis County Circuit Court judge held an evi­den­tiary hear­ing for Marcellus Williams (pic­tured), who has long main­tained his inno­cence in the 1998 mur­der of Felicia Gayle. At this hear­ing, the office of St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney ( PA ) Wesley Bell con­ced­ed that the pri­or admin­is­tra­tion, under Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCullogh, com­mit­ted con­sti­tu­tion­al errors con­tribut­ing to Mr. Williams’ unre­li­able con­vic­tion and death sen­tence. These errors include the…

Website Guide

An introduction to the navigation system, features, and terminology of DPI's website.

Upcoming Executions

Information about scheduled executions around the country

Innocence

For every 8.2 peo­ple exe­cut­ed in the Unit­ed States in the mod­ern era of the death penal­ty, one per­son on death row has been exon­er­at­ed.

State-By-State

States With and Without the Death Penalty

DPI Fact Sheet

PDF handout with facts about the Death Penalty