The Death Penalty Information Centre releases an annual report on the status of the death penalty in the United States, highlighting significant developments and featuring latest statistics. Some of the key highlights of the 2021 Report include:
- While there were fewer executions in 2021, “those that do occur demonstrate the death penalty is not reserved for the worst of the worst, but the most vulnerable of the vulnerable.” – Ngozi Ndulue, DPIC’s Deputy Director.
- An analysis of 600 death penalty public opinion surveys conducted over the course of 75 years indicated that public support for capital punishment has steadily declined since the 1990s and was lower in 2021 than at any other time since 1966.
- Three states — Alabama, Oklahoma, and Texas — accounted for a half of all death sentences and a majority of executions. For a seventh straight year, there were no executions west of Texas.
- Two more innocent death-row prisoners were exonerated in 2021, bringing the number of wrongfully-convicted people exonerated from death row since 1972 to 186. That amounts to one exoneration for every 8.3 executions in the modern era.
The Julian Wagner Memorial Fund Inc. 