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
MAY 18, 2023United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - North Dakota (Federal). Life in prison for Alfonso Rodriguez
MAY 17, 2023United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Federal. Sayfullo Saipov formally sentenced to 10 life sentences
- APRIL 15, 2023United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - 20.200 gun-related deaths in the United States last year
40 percent of US households have guns
APRIL 12, 2023United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - More topics on the DPIC’s website
Race, conditions of confinement, and executions
APRIL 3, 2023United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - One-time supporter of Guantánamo's military court now says it was 'doomed'
Former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson
MARCH 30, 2023United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Florida. Senate OKs SB 450, easier path to imposing death penalty
- MARCH 30, 2023United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Exonerated Central Park 5 Member Reacts to Trump Indictment
Yusef Salaam
- MARCH 16, 2023United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - North Dakota. Federal prosecutors will not seek death for Alfonso Rodriguez
- MARCH 13, 2023United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Sayfullo Saipov sentenced to life in prison without parole
JANUARY 29, 2023United StatesDEATH PENALTYIRAN - US Indicts Three In Iran-Backed Plot To Kill Masih Alinejad
A U.S. journalist of Iranian origin now living in New York
JANUARY 26, 2023United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Family Members of Murder Victims Call on North Carolina, Nevada to Commute States’ Death Rows
JANUARY 20, 2023United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - 300 organizations send letter to Biden to end death penalty
JANUARY 18, 2023United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Biden inaction, mixed signals on death penalty
- JANUARY 17, 2023United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Feds won’t seek death penalty against Patrick Crusius
El Paso Walmart gunman accused of massacring 23 people
JANUARY 3, 2023United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Missouri. Amber McLaughlin executed on January 3
First known US execution of an openly transgender person
DECEMBER 16, 2022United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA DPIC 2022 Year End Report
22 death sentences and 18 executions in 2022
NOVEMBER 15, 2022United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Rasmussen Reports poll: 46% in favour of death penalty, 28% against, 26% abstentions
NOVEMBER 14, 2022United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Gallup poll: 55% Support Death Penalty, 42% against, 3% abstentions.
- OCTOBER 23, 2022United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Sept. 11 Case Awaits Biden Administration’s Reply on Plea Deal
At Guantánamo Bay
OCTOBER 12, 2022United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Oklahoma. Federal Bureau of Prisons denies transfer of John Fitzgerald Hanson
SEPTEMBER 30, 2022United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Report: Black People 7.5 Times More Likely to Be Wrongfully Convicted of Murder than Whites
SEPTEMBER 2, 2022United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Death Row USA Spring 2022
2,414 people on US death row, but "only" 1385 at "real risk of execution"
- JULY 1, 2022United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - 2022 DPIC Mid-Year Review
7 new death sentences and 7 executions so far
JUNE 30, 2022United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Ketanji Brown Jackson has been sworn in
First Black Woman to Serve as a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
- JUNE 27, 2022United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Biden must take action on promise to end federal death penalty
- JUNE 16, 2022United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Percentage Who View the Death Penalty as Morally Acceptable Remains Near Record Low
Galluo poll
- APRIL 26, 2022United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Joe Biden grants clemency to 78 people
But no federal death row inmates
APRIL 11, 2022United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Senate Confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson
First African-American Woman to Serve on U.S. Supreme Court
MARCH 29, 2022United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - President Biden Signs Law Making Lynching a Federal Crime
MARCH 15, 2022United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Minitary. Sept. 11 Prosecutors Are in Plea Talks
Guilty plea in exchange for life sentences