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
SEPTEMBER 11, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - The Defense Secretary Revoked a Plea Deal in the 9/11 Case. Or Did He?
SEPTEMBER 11, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - The Central Park 5 are exonerated. Trump doesn't seem to think so
- AUGUST 22, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Exonerated members of Central Park 5 warn about Trump at Democratic convention
AUGUST 16, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Trump and Harris records on criminal justice policy
AUGUST 2, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - U.S. defense secretary rejects plea deal for 9/11 mastermind
Puts death penalty back on table
JULY 31, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Accused Sept. 11 Plotters Agree to Plead Guilty at Guantánamo Bay
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi
JULY 1, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - California. Larry Roberts Becomes the 200th Person Exonerated from Death Row
JULY 1, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - DPIC Releases Report on Politicization of the Death Penalty
JUNE 16, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Activists ask Biden to commute all federal death sentences
Trump could execute 40 prisoners in second term 'bloodbath'
JUNE 6, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Maryland. Kenneth J. Lighty gets 2 life sentences at resentencing
Federal sentence
- MAY 28, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Guantánamo prosecutors accused of “outrageous” misconduct
For trying to use torture testimony
- MAY 20, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Death Row USA Fall 2023 Report
As of October 1, 2023: Continued Decline of Death Row Population
MAY 20, 2024United KingdomDEATH PENALTYMay 20, 2024 . United Kingdom. Assange wins right to challenge US extradition
MAY 8, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - The Events in the Lives of Women on U.S. Death Row
Article of New Cardozo Law Review
MAY 7, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Under 1% of Catholics follow the Pope on abortion, death penalty, euthanasia
MAY 6, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Lethal drugs source of 2020/21 federal executions confirmed
Connecticut-based "Absolute Standards Inc."
MAY 6, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - America’s prison system is turning into a de facto nursing home
More and more older people are spending their dying years behind bars
MAY 2, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Federal prosecutors won't challenge Dzhokhar Tsarnaev appeal case
Boston Marathon bomber
MAY 1, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - (Military). Sept. 11 Trial Plea Negotiations Still Underway at Guantánamo Bay
APRIL 22, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Prosecutor Says Sept. 11 Suspects Can Be Held Past War Crimes Sentence
- APRIL 16, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Binding Assurances that Julian Assange Will Not Face the Death Penalty
APRIL 2, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Trump calls for cop killers to get ‘mandatory’ death sentence
in wake of slain NYPD Detective Jonathan Diller
- MARCH 26, 2024United KingdomDEATH PENALTY
UNITED KINGDOM - Assange can’t be extradited until US rules out death penalty
MARCH 25, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - The National Registry of Exonerations published its 2023 report
153 exonerations last year, 4 from death row
MARCH 11, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Top US Nitrogen Gas Producers Ban Use in Executions
MARCH 1, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYEUROPEAN UNION - Statement on the latest executions in US
FEBRUARY 29, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - 61 botched executions since 1977
The last one yesterday, in Idaho, against Thomas Creech
FEBRUARY 24, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Trump Ally Charlie Kirk Suggests Children Should Watch Public Executions
JANUARY 23, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Alabama. Dissent rises against looming ‘experimental’ execution of Kenneth Smith
JANUARY 12, 2024United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - U.S. to Seek Death for Payton Gendron
Biden thus contradicts his electoral promises