New death sen­tences in 2024 increased from 2023

The FINANCIAL — In an executive order titled “Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety,” Trump reversed a Biden-era moratorium on federal executions and instructed the attorney general to pursue capital sentences for every appropriate case—as well as in all cases of murder of law enforcement officers or murders committed by undocumented immigrants, regardless of circumstances.

Public sup­port for the death penal­ty remains at a five-decade low (53%) and Gallup’s recent polling reveals that more than half of young U.S. adults ages 18 through 43 now oppose the death penal­ty. Fewer peo­ple found the death penal­ty moral­ly accept­able this year (55%) than last year (60%).

The num­ber of new death sen­tences in 2024 increased from 2023, with 26.

The num­ber of peo­ple on death row across the United States has con­tin­ued to decline from a peak pop­u­la­tion in the year 2000.

Significant media atten­tion, pub­lic protest, and sup­port from unlike­ly allies in the cas­es of Marcellus ​“Khaliifah” Williams, Robert Roberson, and Richard Glossip ele­vat­ed the issue of inno­cence in 2024, as the United States marked the mile­stone of 200 death row exonerations.

On December 23, President Biden com­mut­ed the death sen­tences of 37 men out of 40 on the fed­er­al death row. On December 31, Governor Cooper com­mut­ed the death sen­tences of 15 men on North Carolina’s death row.

More than 75% of the murder victims in cases resulting in an execution were white, even though nationally only 50% of murder victims generally are white.

Death penal­ty-relat­ed leg­is­la­tion was enact­ed in at least six states to lim­it use of the death penal­ty, alter exe­cu­tion meth­ods or pro­to­cols, mod­i­fy pro­ce­dures, and increase secre­cy. Abolition efforts con­tin­ue in more than a dozen states, and efforts to rein­tro­duce the death penal­ty in eight states failed. Only one effort to expand the death penal­ty to non-homi­cide crimes was successful.

The 1600th exe­cu­tion in the mod­ern death penal­ty era occurred in September 2024.

The num­ber of peo­ple exe­cut­ed in 2024 remained near­ly the same as 2023, with 25 exe­cu­tions occur­ring in nine states. This was the tenth con­sec­u­tive year with few­er than 30 exe­cu­tions. Utah, South Carolina, and Indiana con­duct­ed their first exe­cu­tions after more than a decade hia­tus. Alabama became the first state to use nitro­gen gas to execute prisoners.

The United States Supreme Court has large­ly aban­doned the crit­i­cal role it has his­tor­i­cal­ly played in reg­u­lat­ing and lim­it­ing use of the death penalty.

The death penal­ty has been abol­ished in prac­tice or in law in a major­i­ty of coun­tries around the world (144), and 2024 saw legal abo­li­tion efforts progress in four more coun­tries. Despite this, glob­al exe­cu­tions increased in 2024 for the third straight year, led by Iran.

Jurors in Washington state are three times more likely to recommend a death sentence for a black defendant than for a white defendant in a similar case. (Prof. K. Beckett, Univ. of
Washington, 2014).

In Louisiana, the odds of a death sentence were 97% higher for those whose victim was white than for those whose victim was black. (Pierce & Radelet, Louisiana Law Review, 2011).

A study in California found that those convicted of killing whites were more than 3 times as likely to be sentenced to death as those convicted of killing blacks and more than 4 times more likely as those convicted of killing Latinos. (Pierce & Radelet, Santa Clara Law Review, 2005).

A comprehensive study of the death penalty in North Carolina found that the odds of receiving a death sentence rose by 3.5 times among those defendants whose victims were white. (Prof.Jack Boger and Dr. Isaac Unah, University of North Carolina, 2001).

An average of 4 wrongly convicted death-row prisoners have been exonerated each year since 1973.

A report by the National Research Council, titled Deterrence and the Death Penalty, stated that studies claiming that the death penalty has a deterrent effect on murder rates are “fundamentally flawed” and should not be used when making policy decisions (2012).

• A DPIC study of 30 years of FBI Uniform Crime Report homicide data found that the South has consistently had by far the highest murder rate. The South accounts for more than 80% of executions. The Northeast, which has fewer than 0.5% of all executions, has consistently had the
lowest murder rate.

• A 2009 poll commissioned by DPIC found police chiefs ranked the death penalty last among ways to reduce violent crime. The police chiefs also considered the death penalty the least efficient use of taxpayers’ money.

There were 52 women on death row as of March 11, 2024. This constitutes 2.12% of the total death row population. 18 women have been executed since 1976.

Capital trials cost more than non-capital cases because of higher costs for prosecution and defense lawyers; time consuming pre- trial investigation; lengthy jury selection process for death-qualification; enhanced security requirements; longer trials because of bifurcated proceedings; solitary confinement incarceration; and necessary appeals to ensure fairness.

• An economic analysis of independent research studies completed in 15 death penalty states from 2001 – 2017 found that the average difference in case-level costs for seeking the death penalty was just over $700,000. Report of the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, Table 1 at p.233 (2017).

A 2019 poll by Gallup found that a clear majority of voters (60%) would choose a punishment other than the death penalty for murder.

• Oklahoma capital cases cost, on average, 3.2 times more than non-capital cases. (Study prepared by Peter A. Collins, Matthew J. Hickman, and Robert C. Boruchowitz, with research support by Alexa D. O’Brien, for the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review
Commission, 2017.)

• Defense costs for death penalty trials in Kansas averaged about $400,000 per case, compared to $100,000 per case when the death penalty was not sought. (Kansas Judicial Council, 2014).
• A study in California revealed that the cost of the death penalty in the state has been over $4 billion since 1978. Study considered pre-trial and trial costs, costs of automatic appeals and state habeas corpus petitions, costs of federal habeas corpus appeals, and
costs of incarceration on death row. (Alarcon & Mitchell, 2011).

Upcoming Executions 

Total Executions Scheduled for 2025