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
- 1,537
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 1,537 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
JANUARY 18, 2025United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - A third man, Iouri Mikhel, rejects Biden's pardon
JANUARY 17, 2025United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Biden grants clemency to 2490 convicted of non-violent drug offences
JANUARY 16, 2025United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Department of Justice Withdraws Federal Execution Protocol
And Keeps Moratorium on Executions in Place
- JANUARY 14, 2025United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Agofsky and Davis can't legally object to Biden's death row commutations
DOJ argues
JANUARY 10, 2025United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Federal judge delays 9/11 deals
Some victims' family members criticize Biden's lack of “political” courage
- JANUARY 7, 2025United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - US transfers 11 Guantanamo detainees to Oman
After more than two decades without charge
- JANUARY 7, 2025United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Two death row inmates reject Biden’s clemency
Shannon Agofsky and Len Davis
- JANUARY 6, 2025United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Why Does the United States Bother to Impose Death Sentences?
Editorial by Professor Austin Sarat, Amherst College
DECEMBER 31, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - North Carolina. Clemency for 15 death row prisoners
DECEMBER 30, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Military Appeals Court Rules 9/11 Defendants Can Plead to Avoid Death Sentences
DECEMBER 23, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - List of 37 commuted by Biden
- DECEMBER 23, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Biden commutes 37 of the 40 federal death sentences
Before Trump can resume executions
DECEMBER 23, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA: Biden commutes 37 of 40 federal death sentences
President Joe Biden announced on December 23 that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment.
DECEMBER 19, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - “The Death Penalty in 2024: Year End Report”
25 executions, 26 new death sentences
- DECEMBER 13, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Biden commutes roughly 1,500 sentences and pardons 39 people
For non-violent crimes
DECEMBER 9, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Pope Francis and many others urge Biden to commute all federal death sentences
- NOVEMBER 27, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Biden Contemplates Federal Commutation Requests
Clemency to the 40 men currently on federal death row
NOVEMBER 26, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - 9/11 Victim’s Daughter Writes Why She Supports Plea Deals for Perpetrators
Chanel Shum was starting preschool when her father was killed in the September 11 terrorist attacks
NOVEMBER 18, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Gallup poll: 53% of Americans in favor of the death penalty
The number masks considerable differences between older and younger Americans
NOVEMBER 11, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Trump wants to expand death penalty
For child rapists, immigrants who kill U.S. citizens, human traffickers and drug dealers
NOVEMBER 11, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Guantanamo. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin appeals plea
For the September 11 defendants
- NOVEMBER 10, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Guantanamo. Military Judge Postpones Guilty Plea Proceedings in Sept. 11 Case
- NOVEMBER 7, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Plea deals revived for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 2 co-defendants
No death penalty for Sept. 11 attacks
NOVEMBER 7, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Biden Urged To Prevent Death Row Execution Spree Under Trump
- OCTOBER 11, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Trump insists on the death penalty for drug dealers
As suggested to him by Chinese leader Xi Jinping
OCTOBER 10, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - A new documentary, “Rebel Nun,” tells the story of Sister Helen Prejan
40 years against the death penalty
OCTOBER 1, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Last Week America Carried Out Its 1,600th Execution Since 1976.
When Will the Madness Stop?
SEPTEMBER 30, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Rulings for 2 Death-Sentenced Prisoners Recognize Devastating Harm Caused by Solitary Confinement
SEPTEMBER 17, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Richard Branson and 350 business leaders renew call to end death penalty
SEPTEMBER 13, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - 3 Americans and 34 Others Sentenced to Death in Congo
On Coup Charges