Death Penalty Information Center

08/03/2026

On July 30, 2026, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey set a new exe­cu­tion date for Jeffery Lee after the state’s unsuc­cess­ful attempt to exe­cute him using nitro­gen gas in June. Gov. Ivey set Mr. Lee’s exe­cu­tion by lethal injec­tion for September 17, 2026, just over three months after an Alabama fed­er­al judge per­ma­nent­ly blocked the state from using its nitro­gen gas protocol.

This new exe­cu­tion date came after U.S. District Judge Emily Marks, the same judge who enjoined the state from using nitro­gen gas, found that Alabama offi­cials could use lethal injec­tion to car­ry out his exe­cu­tion. In her deci­sion, Judge Marks not­ed that her injunc­tion on using Alabama’s nitro­gen gas pro­to­col was ​“nar­row­ly tai­lored” and that the injunc­tion would not ​“fur­ther delay” Mr. Lee’s exe­cu­tion. Judge Marks not­ed, “[c]onsidering the total­i­ty of the cir­cum­stances, includ­ing the cir­cum­stances of dis­missal of Lee’s lethal injec­tion chal­lenge, equi­ty does not demand that the court pro­hib­it the state from exe­cut­ing Lee by lethal injec­tion, the state’s default exe­cu­tion method and one it is present­ly able to use.”


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On July 30, 2026, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey set a new exe­cu­tion date for Jeffery Lee after the state’s unsuc­cess­ful attempt to exe­cute him using...

08/03/2026

August 2nd marked ten years since the Delaware Supreme Court invalidated the state’s capital sentencing law in Rauf v. State. The anniversary comes as the U.S. death penalty landscape continues to move in sharply different directions.

Twenty-three states have abolished the death penalty, and 33 states have either abolished it or carried out no ex*****on in at least ten years. New death sentences remained near historic lows in 2025, while public support for capital punishment fell to its lowest level in five decades.

At the same time, 47 people were executed in 2025, the highest annual total in 15 years. Ex*****ons were highly concentrated: Florida alone carried out 19, accounting for 40% of the national total.

The United States does not have a uniform death penalty system. Its legal status and use are shaped state by state through court rulings, legislation, constitutional provisions, prosecutorial decisions, clemency, and executive action. As a result, capital punishment may be legally available but rarely used, suspended without being abolished, restored after repeal, or prohibited more permanently.

Ten years after Rauf, Delaware has no death row and no enforceable death penalty. But the durability of that change remains unresolved as lawmakers consider whether to place the prohibition in the state constitution.

These slides trace how Delaware’s ten years unfolded. Share this with anyone tracking state criminal justice policy, and find the current status of every state at deathpenaltyinfo.org.

07/31/2026

July 2026 monthly news roundup! Each month, DPI highlights important updates and stories related to the death penalty in the U.S. Swipe to find out what happened in July.
 
To learn more about each story, visit DPI’s website at the link in our bio. 
 


07/30/2026

Missouri has car­ried out exe­cu­tions at one of the high­est rates of any state since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment to resume 50 years ago, accord­ing to a new analy­sis of death sen­tences issued between 1972 and 2025. The Marshall Project, draw­ing on data com­piled by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Professor Frank Baumgartner and the Death Penalty Information Center, found that Missouri has exe­cut­ed more than half of the peo­ple it has sen­tenced to death. Nationally, about 18% of death sen­tences have end­ed in exe­cu­tion. Among states that have sen­tenced at least 10 peo­ple to death, Missouri’s rate of exe­cu­tions trails only Virginia, which abol­ished the death penal­ty in 2021.


To learn more, visit our website

Missouri has car­ried out exe­cu­tions at one of the high­est rates of any state since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment to resume...

07/30/2026

DPI’s​“What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty.

Why it mat­ters: State laws per­mit­ting judges to over­ride jury deci­sions and the impo­si­tion of death sen­tences based on non-unan­i­mous jury ver­dicts have con­tributed to Alabama and Florida’s high death sen­tenc­ing rates — with near­ly 20% of Alabama’s death-sen­tenced pop­u­la­tion on death row because of judicial override.


To learn more, visit our website:

# # # # DPI’s​“What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and...

07/29/2026

Looking for information on ex*****ons in the United States? Our Ex*****on Database allows you to search and filter ex*****ons carried out since 1977 by factors like year, state, region, defendant demographics, victim characteristics, and more. Whether you’re conducting research, writing a paper, or simply learning more, this database makes this information easy to explore.

Watch this 101-second tutorial to discover one of DPI’s most valuable research resources!

Explore the Ex*****on Database through the link in our bio.

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07/29/2026

Prompted by the recent botched exe­cu­tion attempt of Tony Carruthers, a for­mer Tennessee exe­cu­tion offi­cial is plead­ing with Governor Bill Lee to pause exe­cu­tions in the state. In his detailed account, Ian Congleton described how his par­tic­i­pa­tion in exe­cu­tions left him with last­ing post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der, anx­i­ety, and depres­sion. In his op-ed in The Tennessean, he ascribed his trau­ma to ​“the chaos sur­round­ing how exe­cu­tions were han­dled and the feel­ing that, unless TDOC [Tennessee Department of Corrections] changed its approach, things would inevitably go wrong”. On May 21, 2026, Tony Carruthers’ exe­cu­tion team failed to estab­lish sec­ondary and cen­tral IV lines as required after over an hour of attempts and more than a dozen punctures.


To read more, visit our website:

Prompted by the recent botched exe­cu­tion attempt of Tony Carruthers, a for­mer Tennessee exe­cu­tion offi­cial is plead­ing with Governor Bill Lee to...

07/27/2026

In a July 17, 2026, op-ed, for­mer Barack Obama advi­sor Van Jones and for­mer George W. Bush appointee David Safavian joint­ly argue that courts con­tin­ue to accept dis­cred­it­ed foren­sic tech­niques as reli­able evi­dence, con­tribut­ing to wrong­ful con­vic­tions across the coun­try. The authors con­trast the con­fi­dent foren­sic experts seen on tele­vi­sion crime dra­mas with real-world court­rooms where they say, ​“pho­ny foren­sics” meth­ods—micro­scop­ic hair com­par­i­son, bite mark analy­sis, and blood-stain pat­tern inter­pre­ta­tion — are too often pre­sent­ed to juries as ​“so-called evidence.”


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In a July 17, 2026, op-ed, for­mer Barack Obama advi­sor Van Jones and for­mer George W. Bush appointee David Safavian joint­ly argue that courts...

07/23/2026

DPI’s Supreme Court Information Guide is an overview of the role that the United States Supreme Court has played in making critical decisions about recent death penalty cases. While the Supreme Court requires a “greater degree of reli­a­bil­i­ty” when making decisions about the death penalty, these decisions reflect the Court’s reluctance to grant relief or uphold stays for death row prisoners.

To learn more, visit our website at the link in our bio.

07/23/2026

On July 20, 2026, attor­neys for death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Darrell Hines, in a new fil­ing, asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to con­di­tion­al­ly stay Mr. Hines’ August 13 exe­cu­tion date because the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) has refused to iden­ti­fy whether it will use the same physi­cian involved in the state’s failed exe­cu­tion attempt of Tony Carruthers. Pointing to an extreme risk of pain and suf­fer­ing, as evi­denced by Mr. Carruthers’ botched exe­cu­tion, coun­sel for Mr. Hines has asked the state’s high­est court to order TDOC to replace the physi­cian used in Mr. Carruthers exe­cu­tion or to appoint a spe­cial mas­ter to ful­ly con­sid­er Mr. Hines’ Eighth Amendment claim.


To learn more, visit our website:

On July 20, 2026, attor­neys for death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Darrell Hines, in a new fil­ing, asked the Tennessee Supreme Court to con­di­tion­al­ly...