Death Penalty Information Center

09/24/2026

Florida’s pace of ex*****ons is not a snapshot of the national norm but rather an outlier. While the state has accelerated ex*****ons, the broader U.S. picture remains one of decline and concentration: ex*****ons continue to be carried out in only a small number of states, and recent death sentences remain historically low.

That contrast matters. Across the country, juries are often choosing life sentences over death, and DPI reported 23 new death sentences in 2025 — the fifth consecutive year with fewer than 30. In other words, Florida’s current pace is unfolding against a national landscape where capital punishment remains limited, uneven, and increasingly concentrated.

Swipe through the carousel to see what makes Florida different, not only the number of ex*****ons, but the structure behind them. It places Florida’s current activity in the wider U.S. context, where the death penalty persists, but its use continues to narrow geographically and procedurally.

09/24/2026

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an exe­cu­tion war­rant for 74-year-old pris­on­er William ​“Bill” Thompson less than 24 hours after he was released from the hos­pi­tal to the hos­pice wing of the prison. After his attor­neys raised seri­ous con­cerns about his men­tal com­pe­ten­cy and dete­ri­o­rat­ing phys­i­cal health, Gov. DeSantis agreed to tem­porar­i­ly stay the exe­cu­tion so Mr. Thompson’s com­pe­ten­cy can be eval­u­at­ed on October 1. If he is found com­pe­tent, his exe­cu­tion remains sched­uled for October 13.


To learn more, visit our website:

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an exe­cu­tion war­rant for 74-year-old pris­on­er William ​“Bill” Thompson less than 24 hours after he was...

09/23/2026

In the September 2026 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Emmjolee Mendoza Waters, Director of Death Penalty Abolition for Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN), a nation­al orga­ni­za­tion mobi­liz­ing peo­ple of Catholic faith and moral con­vic­tion around issues of crim­i­nal jus­tice, includ­ing death penal­ty abo­li­tion and restora­tive jus­tice. Ms. Mendoza Waters dis­cuss­es why the Catholic Church oppos­es the death penal­ty and calls believ­ers to seek jus­tice in ways that pro­tect soci­ety, hold peo­ple account­able, and care for vic­tims and sur­vivors, while also respect­ing the dig­ni­ty of every human person.


To listen to the episode and learn more, visit our website:

In the September 2026 episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, DPI Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Emmjolee Mendoza Waters, Director...

09/23/2026

The death penal­ty has been uncon­sti­tu­tion­al for juve­niles since 2005, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that peo­ple under age 18 lack the impulse con­trol, fore­sight, and indi­vid­u­al­i­ty that make adults more cul­pa­ble for their crimes. In that deci­sion, the Court acknowl­edged that the ​“qual­i­ties that dis­tin­guish juve­niles from adults do not dis­ap­pear when an indi­vid­ual turns 18.” Indeed, in the two decades since, experts have reached a broad con­sen­sus that emerg­ing adults age 18, 19, and 20 dis­play the same cog­ni­tive imma­tu­ri­ty as juve­niles, as the Death Penalty Information Center high­light­ed in a 2025 report. Today’s pros­e­cu­tors and cap­i­tal jurors appear to agree. Since 2020, an aver­age of just one emerg­ing adult per year has been sen­tenced to death in the entire coun­try. Yet sched­uled exe­cu­tions this month of three indi­vid­u­als under the age of 21 at the time of their crimes show the long tail of this prac­tice — and its stark­ly unequal impact.


To learn more, visit our website:

The death penal­ty has been uncon­sti­tu­tion­al for juve­niles since 2005, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that peo­ple under age 18 lack the impulse...

09/21/2026

Today marks 15 years since the ex*****on of Troy Davis, who was convicted of the 1989 killing of Officer Mark MacPhail.

Spending more than 20 years on death row, Mr. Davis maintained he did not kill Officer MacPhail, and new evidence emerged after his sentencing in support of his innocence. There were widespread concerns with racism, prosecutorial misconduct, and the fairness of Mr. Davis’ trial. Despite these concerns and the calls of hundreds of thousands of people for clemency, Mr. Davis was executed by the state of Georgia on September 21, 2011.

To date, DPI has documented 203 people who have been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death, only to later be exonerated.

Prisoners on death row today maintain their innocence—including Melissa Lucio and Robert Roberson—both of whom were sentenced to death in Texas.

Scroll through to learn more about all three cases and concerns with innocence.

09/21/2026

In a September 17, 2026 op-ed, P. Ken Howe — who served as sher­iff of Portage County, Ohio from 1989 to 1993 and was present at the crime scene — called on Governor Mike DeWine to grant a full par­don to Tyrone Noling, who has spent three decades on death row after being con­vict­ed of the 1990 mur­ders of Cora and Bernhardt Harting. Mr. Noling has always main­tained his inno­cence. Mr. Howe’s pub­lic request fol­lows an August 25 deci­sion from the Ohio Parole Board rec­om­mend­ing that Gov. DeWine grant Mr. Noling clemen­cy. Of the board mem­bers who reviewed the case, one rec­om­mend­ed a full par­don while five oth­ers rec­om­mend­ed parole eli­gi­bil­i­ty in 2029.


To learn more, visit our website:

In a September 17, 2026 op-ed, P. Ken Howe — who served as sher­iff of Portage County, Ohio from 1989 to 1993 and was present at the crime scene —...

09/18/2026

Since 1976, 369 death-sentenced prisoners have received clemency for humanitarian reasons — but who gets it, and why, depends heavily on where they’re sentenced.

Swipe through for a breakdown of what clemency actually is, how the process varies state to state, the most common factors behind a grant, and a recent case out of Alabama where comparative culpability made the difference between life and death.

Full analysis in our “What to Know: Clemency” installment — link in bio.

09/17/2026

After Georgia denied a records request on the grounds that the state's Lethal Injection Secrecy Law makes cer­tain exe­cu­tion-relat­ed infor­ma­tion a ​“con­fi­den­tial state secret” need­ed to pro­tect those involved in exe­cu­tions from harass­ment, jour­nal­ist Max Blau sued the state. The law­suit led to the release of records con­cern­ing Georgia’s lethal injec­tion process. Those records revealed:

Georgia is spend­ing sub­stan­tial­ly more on lethal injec­tion-relat­ed costs than it did in pri­or years. Over the past decade, the state’s Corrections Department has spent an aver­age of more than $150,000 annu­al­ly on those costs, sig­nif­i­cant­ly more than the amounts it agreed to pay before 2017.

Since the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, Georgia has paid more than $1.1 mil­lion to at least one con­trac­tor work­ing with the Corrections Department on its lethal injec­tion process. One per­son has been exe­cut­ed dur­ing that time.

Georgia offi­cials may have failed to fol­low their own finan­cial poli­cies by not main­tain­ing detailed pur­chase orders in the state’s financial system.


To learn more, visit our website:

The state of Georgia planned to exe­cute Stacey Humphreys by lethal injec­tion on September 16, 2026, but Cobb County Superior Court Judge Tyler...

09/16/2026

Questions about discrimination in jury selection often emerge years—or even decades—after a capital trial has ended. Across the United States, courts have vacated nearly 70 capital convictions or death sentences in 16 states on the basis of jury discrimination, while records from older cases continue to reveal patterns that were not fully examined at the time of trial.

Those records remain consequential today. Recent reviews and litigation have revisited prosecutors’ jury-selection notes, patterns of strikes, and explanations for removing prospective jurors.

Our latest carousel looks at jury selection in capital cases and some of the data, legal developments, and reforms shaping the issue today. Learn more at deathpenaltyinfo.org.

09/16/2026

Alabama is sched­uled to exe­cute Jeffery Lee by lethal injec­tion on September 17, 2026, near­ly three decades after a jury in Dallas County vot­ed to sen­tence him to life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. Mr. Lee was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the 1998 mur­ders of Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson dur­ing a rob­bery in Orrville, Alabama. Mr. Lee’s jury vot­ed 7 – 5 to rec­om­mend a life sen­tence with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole, but under Alabama’s judi­cial over­ride law, Mr. Lee’s tri­al judge reject­ed the jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion and instead imposed a death sentence.

In 2017, Alabama abol­ished the prac­tice of judi­cial over­ride; how­ev­er, the law did not apply retroac­tive­ly. Mr. Lee is among 25 pris­on­ers still sen­tenced to death in Alabama as a result of judi­cial over­ride, the major­i­ty of whom had life sen­tence rec­om­men­da­tions from juries over­rid­den by judges. Two jurors from Mr. Lee’s orig­i­nal tri­al have said in a video sub­mit­ted as part of his clemen­cy cam­paign that they are frus­trat­ed with the tri­al judge’s deci­sion to over­rule their rec­om­men­da­tion for a life sen­tence. Between 1976 and 2011, Alabama judges over­rode jury sen­tenc­ing ver­dicts 107 times, and in 98 of those cas­es, judges imposed a death sen­tence after a jury had vot­ed for life, accord­ing to data com­piled by the Equal Justice Initiative.


To learn more, visit our website:

Alabama is sched­uled to exe­cute Jeffery Lee by lethal injec­tion on September 17, 2026, near­ly three decades after a jury in Dallas County vot­ed to...