What is the Death Penalty Information Center?

The Death Penalty Information Center is an American non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., that disseminates studies, reports, and data related to capital punishment. Founded in 1990, it focuses primarily on the application of the death penalty in the United States. While it does not take a formal position on capital punishment itself, its critical stance on how it is administered has led some critics to label it as an anti-death penalty organization.

What we know

• The Death Penalty Information Center is an American non-profit organization founded in 1990 and based in Washington, D.C. [1, 2]
• The organization does not take a formal position on the death penalty, though it is critical of how capital punishment is administered. [2]
• In June 2022, the center released its Death Penalty Census covering the period from 1972 to 2021. [2]
• A pro-death penalty prosecutor has described the organization as a comprehensive and authoritative internet resource on the subject, while also noting that it does not present pro-death penalty views. [2]

Still open

• There are differing views on the organization's neutrality, with some observers referring to it as an anti-death penalty organization due to its criticisms of how the punishment is administered.

Where to go next

• the bigger pictureHow is capital punishment currently applied in the United States?
• how we knowWhat was the significance of the Furman v. Georgia Supreme Court decision?
• a case in pointHow does Florida handle capital punishment cases?
• compared withWhich countries still maintain the death penalty worldwide?
• whenWhen did the United States last conduct public executions?
• an unexpected connectionHow did a Supreme Court milestone inspire a comprehensive national database?On the 50th anniversary of the Furman v. Georgia decision, the Death Penalty Information Center released its multi-year Death Penalty Census detailing decades of sentencing data.

Sources

• [1]Death Penalty Information Center (Wikidata Q5247175) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Death Penalty Information Center · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Capital punishment in the United States · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Capital punishment in Florida · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]List of most recent executions by jurisdiction · CC BY-SA 4.0