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
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 21, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Life Without Parole Is A Death Sentence With Fewer Legal Protections
56,000 people serving life-without-parole sentences
MAY 1, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - 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 PENALTYUSA - Senators Urge Biden To Shut Down Guantánamo
Calling It A 'Symbol Of Lawlessness'
APRIL 9, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - 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 PENALTYUSA - Launch of a new website
The Death Penalty Photography Project
MARCH 22, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYBusiness Executives Launch Campaign Against the Death Penalty
Richard Branson and Arianna Huffington lead the initiative
MARCH 6, 2021ItalyDEATH PENALTYHands off Cain - Comparison between the United States and Italy
speaking at the conference "La Storia di Greg"
- FEBRUARY 28, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Juvenile Life Without Parole
1.465 people are serving JLWOP
- FEBRUARY 27, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - In the United States, more than 200,000 people are serving life sentences
study by the Sentencing Project
FEBRUARY 26, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Federal Bureau of Prisons Sanitized Execution Reports
Omitting Disturbing Details Observed by Media Witnesses
FEBRUARY 24, 2021United NationsDEATH PENALTYU.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 PENALTYUSA - 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
JANUARY 16, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Federal. Corey Johnson died an "excruciatingly painful death"
felt like drowning for 20 minutes
JANUARY 16, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA Dustin Higgs was executed at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana
He was pronounced dead at 1:23 a.m. EST on January 16.
- JANUARY 14, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Federal. Corey Johnson was executed
lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana
JANUARY 13, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Federal. Lisa Montgomery was executed.
The woman was pronounced dead at 1:31 a.m. Wednesday
- JANUARY 12, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Federal judge grants Lisa Montgomery a stay of execution
pending a competency hearing
- JANUARY 12, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTY
USA - Second suspension of the execution of Lisa Montgomery
ordered by the DC Court of Appeals
JANUARY 9, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Federal. Montgomery Not Competent For Execution
Petition in federal court in Indiana
JANUARY 8, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Federal. Judge puts restrictions on federal executions
Bureau can proceed only if it shows it is taking certain COVID precautions
JANUARY 7, 2021United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - Federal. Dustin Higgs Case To Be Heard 12 Days After Scheduled Execution Date
Uncertainties over execution protocol