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
APRIL 13, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTYNACDL. 2005 SPRING MEETING AND THE DEATH PENALTY
the NACDL's Spring Meeting will be held in New York from April 14 to April 17, 2005. An important occasion to be involved in the ever-expanding International Criminal Law arena.
- MARCH 26, 2005BulgariaDEATH PENALTY
LIBYA. US TO SEEK RELEASE OF BULGARIAN NURSES
the US promised to do all it could to persuade Libya to free five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death on charges they injected the virus that causes AIDS into 400 children.
MARCH 23, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTYTERRI SCHIAVO. THE VATICAN IS FUNDAMENTALIST ON EVERYTHING BUT THE DEATH PENALTY
the definitive ‘No’ by the Vatican on the question of euthanasia, does not correspond to its definitive ‘No’ against the death penalty,” declared Hands Off Cain Secretary Sergio D’Elia, in a dispute with the Vatican which had written in its daily, the Oss
MARCH 21, 2005FranceDEATH PENALTYUSA. GOVERNMENT URGES JUDGE TO SET DATE FOR MOUSSAOUI TRIAL
the US government asked a federal judge to set an October start date for the much-delayed trial of accused September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.
MARCH 21, 2005United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA. CATHOLIC BISHOPS CAMPAIGN AGAINST DEATH PENALTY
US Catholic bishops launched a campaign against the death penalty and presented new data suggesting support for capital punishment among American Catholics had fallen sharply in recent years to below 50 percent. Washington Archbishop Theodore McCarrick to
- MARCH 16, 2005United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA. “I STILL SUPPORT THE DEATH PENALTY”, BUSH
in a news conference President Bush urged stated his support for the death penalty. The following is a transcript of his remarks:
- MARCH 7, 2005United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA. BUSH ADMINISTRATION QUITS PACT USED IN CAPITAL CASES
the Bush administration decided to pull out of an international agreement that opponents of the death penalty have used to fight the sentences of foreigners on death row in the United States, officials said.
- MARCH 4, 2005United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
UNITED KINGDOM. BRITON 'MAY FACE EXECUTION' IF EXTRADITED TO US
Babar Ahmad, a British terrorist suspect, could face the death penalty or imprisonment in Guantánamo Bay if extradited to the US, his lawyers said.
MARCH 4, 2005MexicoDEATH PENALTYUS. BUSH ORDERS COURTS TO GIVE FOREIGN NATIONALS ON DEATH ROW FURTHER REVIEW
the White House has ordered state courts to consider the complaints of 51 Mexican foreign nationals on death row in the United States, International Herald Tribune reported.
- FEBRUARY 28, 2005IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAN. US STATE ANNUAL REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN 2004 DENOUNCES SUMMARY EXECUTIONS
the United States on Monday kept up its feud with Syria and Iran, blasting their regimes as represseive and their human rights records as fraught with abuses ranging from arbitrary arrest to torture.
- DECEMBER 17, 2004SpainDEATH PENALTY
SPAIN – US. EXTRADITION AGREEMENT SIGNED
Justice Minister Juan Fernando López Aguilar and United States Attorney General John Ashcroft on December 17 reinforced cooperation on the fight against crime and terrorism, with the signing of an agreement covering extradition and mutual legal assistance
- DECEMBER 9, 2004ItalyDEATH PENALTY
a court in Rome is holding up a decision on whether to extradite...
a court in Rome is holding up a decision on whether to extradite...
- NOVEMBER 14, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
the number of people sentenced to death reached a 30-year low in 2003
the number of people sentenced to death reached a 30-year low in 2003
- OCTOBER 27, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has urged U.S. House and Senate conferees...
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has urged U.S. House and Senate conferees...
- OCTOBER 27, 2004ItalyDEATH PENALTY
in Rome, 2 ex-death row convicts later found to be innocent appealed in Rome for...
in Rome, 2 ex-death row convicts later found to be innocent appealed in Rome for...
- OCTOBER 13, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
Justices Address Teen Executions
Justices Address Teen Executions
- OCTOBER 9, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
Congress passed and sent legislation to President Bush...
Congress passed and sent legislation to President Bush that would give rape victims and convicted felons greater access to DNA testing
- SEPTEMBER 17, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
US death penalty opponents hope that Democrat John Kerry, a former prosecutor...
US death penalty opponents hope that Democrat John Kerry, a former prosecutor...
- JULY 24, 2004United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
Abu Hamza could not be sent from Britain to the US...
Abu Hamza could not be sent from Britain to the US to face terrorism charges because any guarantee given by the US government not to execute him was worthless, a court was told
- JULY 19, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
The European Union, former US president Jimmy Carter...
The European Union, former US president Jimmy Carter and the ex president of the former Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev called on the US Supreme Court to end the death penalty for offenders younger than 18 at the time of their crimes
- JUNE 24, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in the case of Warren Summerlin...
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in the case of Warren Summerlin v
- JUNE 2, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
A May 2004 Gallup Poll found that a growing number...
A May 2004 Gallup Poll found that a growing number of Americans support a sentence of life without parole rather than the death penalty for those convicted of murder
- MAY 30, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
Kenny Richey, the Scot who has spent more than 17 years...
Kenny Richey, the Scot who has spent more than 17 years on death row in the United States, said he would rather kill himself than spend any more time in prison
- MAY 29, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
At a symposium on capital punishment in Tokyo, sponsored...
At a symposium on capital punishment in Tokyo, sponsored by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, Renny Cushing, the executive director of Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, also the son of a murdered man in the US, said bereaved families of
- MAY 28, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
Britain wanted to push through an extradition request...
Britain wanted to push through an extradition request for Abu Hamza al-Masri, a radical Muslim cleric, as quickly as possible so he could stand trial in the United States on charges of aiding terrorists, the government said
- MAY 19, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
On the eve of the first court-martial in the Iraq prisoner...
On the eve of the first court-martial in the Iraq prisoner abuse by American soldiers ion the county, relatives of those still held at Abu Ghraib prison said the only suitable punishment would be death
- APRIL 23, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
Falun Gong members sued Chinese Commerce Minister Bo...
Falun Gong members sued Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai in US federal court for acts of genocide and torture which they said he carried out against them while a provincial governor
- APRIL 22, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
Van Duc Vo, a Vietnamese-American man accused of plotting...
Van Duc Vo, a Vietnamese-American man accused of plotting to blow up the Vietnamese Embassy in Bangkok in 2001, was ordered extradited to Thailand to face terrorism-related charges
- APRIL 21, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
The United States voted against the resolution on the...
The United States voted against the resolution on the death penalty at the 60th UN Commission on Human Rights
- APRIL 21, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
A House panel gave preliminary approval to a bill backed...
A House panel gave preliminary approval to a bill backed by President Bush to make terrorists crimes that result in death punishable by death or life in prison