United States
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Retentionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 16
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 47
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · The pace of USA executions is on the rise, pushed by...
- News items in the archive
- 1,539
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
United States is classified as Retentionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 16 executions in the country, against 47 the year before. The archive holds 1,539 news items on United States, from 1999 to today.
In the United States the death penalty is a matter for the individual states as well as the federal government: some have abolished it, some retain it without applying it, and some carry out executions regularly. The prevailing method is lethal injection, and several states have reintroduced alternative methods.
Its death rows are among the most populated in the world and the wait often lasts decades. The debate concerns the availability of the drugs, wrongful convictions and the conditions of isolation. The archive follows executions, stays, commutations and court decisions, state by state.
Latest news
OCTOBER 13, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Tennessee. Emergency help for Christa Pike was delayed by confusion
OCTOBER 12, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Tennessee. Executions delayed 1 year
SEPTEMBER 23, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Texas. Ker’Sean Ramey, 41, Black, executed on September 23
SEPTEMBER 17, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Alabama. Jeffery Lee, 49, Black, was executed on September 17
SEPTEMBER 16, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Texas. LeJames Norman, 40, Black, was executed on September 16
SEPTEMBER 11, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Alabama. Brian Martin sentenced to death
SEPTEMBER 10, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Florida. Daniel Conahan, 72, White, was executed on September 10
A suspected serial killer
SEPTEMBER 9, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Texas. Italian court still not ready to extradite Lee Gilley
Over possible punishment concerns
SEPTEMBER 2, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Florida. Billy Adams sentenced to death
APRIL 16, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Death Sentences for 18-20 Year-Olds at 20-Year Low
APRIL 16, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Texas. 2 Magicians Warn the U.S. Supreme Court About Junk Science
Penn & Teller
APRIL 7, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Race of Victim Effect and the Death Penalty
Killing a white person is a more serious offence than killing a black person
APRIL 7, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - 5.5 million people are under the control of the criminal legal system
2 million in prison, 3 million on probation, 530.000 on parole
- APRIL 1, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Why Executions are Becoming “Crueler”
MARCH 23, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Mentally Ill Prisoners and the Death Penalty
DPIC Report
MARCH 13, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - NYT: the Death Penalty Is Even More Horrifying Than You Think
- MARCH 9, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Costs and the Death Penalty
A DPIC study
MARCH 8, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Dale Baich: A defender on death row
Dale Baich has watched 16 men die
- MARCH 4, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Deterrence and the Death Penalty
DPIC Report
MARCH 2, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Constitutional protection for prisoners
Trump, Biden, federal commutees and a judge
MARCH 2, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Federal prosecutors in Luigi Mangione case won’t appeal ruling barring death penalty
FEBRUARY 26, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Guantanamo. Government Still Building Case for U.S.S. Cole Trial 25 Years After Attack
FEBRUARY 17, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Rev. Jesse Jackson, Civil Rights Leader, Dies at 84
FEBRUARY 16, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Pennsylvania. An intervention by Mumia Abu Jamal from prison
The now 72-year-old former Black Panther militant has been in prison for 45 years
FEBRUARY 13, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - DPIC Report on “Women and the Death Penalty”
- FEBRUARY 13, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Federal Judge: Government Is Not Above the Law, Nor Are Former Death-Row Inmates Beneath Its Protection
- FEBRUARY 11, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Federal Judge Blocks Transfer of Former Federally Death-Sentenced Prisoners to Supermax Prison
FEBRUARY 5, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Pentagon Official Rejects Plea Deal in U.S.S. Cole Bombing Case
Guantanamo trial against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri to begin in summer
- JANUARY 30, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Luigi Mangione won’t face most serious federal charges, judge rules
JANUARY 17, 2026United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Trump’s vendetta against federal death row inmates
Sends prisoners who received commutations to “Alcatraz of the Rockies”