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
- 1,047
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 1,047 news items on United States, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
SEPTEMBER 22, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - In the Extreme: Women Serving Life Without Parole and Death Sentences
A report by the Alice Project
SEPTEMBER 20, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Appeals Panel Overturns Army Judge’s Ruling on Torture
At the Guantánamo war cour
SEPTEMBER 8, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Texas. U.S. Supreme Court Stays Texas Execution of John Henry Ramirez
Agrees to Review Contours of the Right to Religious Exercise in the Execution Chamber
SEPTEMBER 1, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Published the latest edition of "Death Row USA" updated to January 1, 2021
2,528 people on death rows
SEPTEMBER 1, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Massachusetts 8th Graders Push to Exonerate Woman Sentenced to Death
In 1683, in Salem Witchcraft Hysteria
AUGUST 27, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - California. First opinion in favor of parole for Sirhan Sihran
Man who assassinated Robert F Kennedy
- JULY 1, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - DPIC 2021 Mid-Year Review
Continuing Record-Low Death Penalty Usage in First Half of Year
JULY 1, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Attorney General Merrick Garland suspends federal executions
"Not enough"
JUNE 25, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - 'Capital Punishment 2019' Reports Number on Death Row Down
Average Time on Death Row Approaches 19 Years
JUNE 25, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Pittsburgh synagogue requests no death penalty for Robert Bowers
Killer of 11 of its members
- JUNE 16, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - White House Reasserts Opposition to Death Penalty
After the controversy over the Tsarnaev case
- JUNE 15, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA Most atheists and agnostics oppose the death penalty
Unlike other U.S. religious groups
JUNE 15, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Biden’s Death Penalty Reversal in the Boston Bomber Case
Follows in Trump's footsteps
JUNE 9, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Gerald Marshall's second message
From Texas' death row
JUNE 2, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Oklahoma. Jury Hands Down Death Penalty For William Reece
- MAY 1, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Why a few counties generate most of the death sentences
“Learning to kill", by Frank R. Baumgartner
APRIL 19, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Sonia Sotomayor’s Lonely Battle at the Supreme Court
To Give the Voiceless a Voice
- APRIL 16, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Senators Urge Biden To Shut Down Guantánamo
Calling It A 'Symbol Of Lawlessness'
- APRIL 9, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Republican-led states secretly spending huge sums on execution drugs
In Arizona, Tennessee and Missouri
APRIL 4, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Military. 40 detainees remained in Guantanamo.
Camp 7 shut down and locked
- MARCH 28, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Launch of a new website
The Death Penalty Photography Project
- MARCH 22, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
Business Executives Launch Campaign Against the Death Penalty
Richard Branson and Arianna Huffington lead the initiative
- FEBRUARY 26, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Federal Bureau of Prisons Sanitized Execution Reports
Omitting Disturbing Details Observed by Media Witnesses
- FEBRUARY 24, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
U.N. RIGHTS BOSS WELCOMES BIDEN STANCE AGAINST DEATH PENALTY
The U.N. human rights chief on 23 February 2021 welcomed a pledge by U.S. President Joe Biden to work towards abolishing the death penalty in the United States.
FEBRUARY 18, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - DPIC Adds Eleven Cases to Innocence List
185 death-row exoneration from 1973 to today
FEBRUARY 15, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Federal Executions Were Likely COVID Superspreader Events
Associated Press Finds
FEBRUARY 9, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Pennsylvania. Christopher Williams Released From Prison After Being Cleared of Another Murder
In 1989 he was charged with 6 murders, none of which he committed
- FEBRUARY 3, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Nearly 1 Million Dollar for Each Federal Execution
financial records recently obtained by the ACLU
JANUARY 26, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Criminal Justice Leaders Urge Biden To End Death Penalty
as 40 members of Congress already did
- JANUARY 19, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Federal. Death sentence tossed for Kenneth Eugene Barrett
for deficient legal representation