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
- 1,550
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 1,550 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
- 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
- APRIL 19, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
The US federal government must intervene with the states...
The US federal government must intervene with the states to ensure a review of the cases of foreigners - particularly Mexicans - sitting on death row, The New York Times said in an editorial
- APRIL 16, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
Yu Zhendong, a man accused of the biggest embezzlement...
Yu Zhendong, a man accused of the biggest embezzlement in recent Chinese history, was extradited from Las Vegas to Beijing
- APRIL 14, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
Mexico's Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN) ruled in favour...
Mexico's Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN) ruled in favour of denying any extradition request on the part of the United States that did not include a pledge not to sentence the extradited individual to life in prison
- APRIL 11, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
Of the 50 states that make up the United States of America, 38 have the death penalty.
Of the 50 states that make up the United States of America, 38 have the death penalty.
- APRIL 9, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
Assured that accused murderer Paul Eduardovich Goldman...
Assured that accused murderer Paul Eduardovich Goldman would not face the death penalty in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a French court agreed to extradite him to the United States
- MARCH 11, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
In Raleigh, an Army appeals court set aside the death...
In Raleigh, an Army appeals court set aside the death sentence of Army Sgt
- MARCH 2, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
Mexican President Vicente Fox will complain to President...
Mexican President Vicente Fox will complain to President Bush about the pending execution in Oklahoma of a Mexican double murderer when the pair meet this weekend, Mexican officials said
- FEBRUARY 27, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
Chinese authorities reprimanded the United States for...
Chinese authorities reprimanded the United States for what it called "double standards" on human rights, after the US State Department accused China of "backsliding on key human rights issues
- FEBRUARY 26, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
Thailand's human rights credentials declined in 2003,...
Thailand's human rights credentials declined in 2003, the United States said in a blunt criticism over the kingdom's deadly war on drugs
- FEBRUARY 25, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
The United States accused China's communist leaders...
The United States accused China's communist leaders of backsliding on their human rights record as arrests of democracy activists and extrajudicial killings continued apace during 2003
- FEBRUARY 17, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
Senator John Kerry, who now seems close to winning...
Senator John Kerry, who now seems close to winning the Democratic nomination to run against President George Bush in the upcoming US presidential elections, declared himself for a moratorium because of "serious systemic flaws" in the country's death penal
- FEBRUARY 8, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife, Cherie Blair,...
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife, Cherie Blair, renewed her attack on America's use of the death penalty
- JANUARY 11, 2004United StatesDEATH PENALTY
US Ambassador Harry K Thomas expressed concern at the...
US Ambassador Harry K Thomas expressed concern at the death sentence issued by a Dhaka court to Faisal Alam Ansary, a Bangladesh born US citizen, saying his trial had not been fair and impartial
- DECEMBER 26, 2003United StatesDEATH PENALTY
(continued from above) In 1988, the Supreme Court prohibited...
(continued from above) In 1988, the Supreme Court prohibited the execution of defendants who were younger than 16 at the time of their crimes
- DECEMBER 26, 2003United StatesDEATH PENALTY
The decision by a Virginia jury to spare Lee Boyd Malvo's...
The decision by a Virginia jury to spare Lee Boyd Malvo's life after finding him guilty in the 2003 Washington-area sniper rampage may hasten a movement to abolish the death penalty for juvenile killers, legal experts say
- DECEMBER 23, 2003United StatesDEATH PENALTY
A jury in Chesapeake, Va
A jury in Chesapeake, Va
- DECEMBER 16, 2003United StatesDEATH PENALTY
Zayd Hassan Abd al-Latif Masud al Safarini pleaded...
Zayd Hassan Abd al-Latif Masud al Safarini pleaded guilty to 95 charges, including murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder, and agreed to a sentence of three consecutive life terms plus 25 years