State Reform Media
Additional Resources on the Death Penalty
Thursday, July 9 at 3pm ET (12pm PT): The Deserving: A Conversation on Justice, Humanity, and Our Collective Role In Mitigation
Join author and Advancing Real Change Executive Director Liz Vartkessian, and Steve Bright, former director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, for an engaging discussion of Vartkessian’s book, The Deserving: What the Lives of the Condemned Reveal About American Justice and the role we all play in attempting to create a humane criminal legal system.
NACDL on the Death Penalty
"The death penalty is barbaric. And I think we as a society need to come face-to-face with that. If we’re not willing to face up to the cruelty, we ought not be doing it."
- Alex Kozinski, United States Court of Appeals Judge for the Ninth Circuit
NACDL opposes the death penalty in all circumstances and supports reforms to ensure that innocent persons are not executed. Purely retributive in nature — countless studies show that it does not deter crime — the death penalty is unjust, uncivilized, and inconsistent with the fallibility of our justice system. Since reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, more than 1,587 people have been executed in the United States. During the same time, more than 197 people sentenced to death have been exonerated. Many others have had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment because of serious doubts about their guilt. And some have been tragically executed despite serious questions concerning their innocence.
Because we believe that no amount of tinkering will rescue the death penalty from its inherent flaws, NACDL supports legislation to abolish the death penalty. View NACDL's Board Resolution Calling for a Moratorium on and Abolition of the Death Penalty.
Why I Oppose the Death Penalty
See NACDL Former Executive Director Norman L. Reimer's interview about why he is opposed to the death penalty.
Recent Victories
March 2021, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed a bill repealing the death penalty, making Virginia the 23rd state, and the first southern state, to abolish or overturn the death penalty. 
March 2020, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed into law a bill repealing the death penalty, making Colorado the 22nd state, in addition to the District of Columbia, to abolish or overturn the death penalty. 
May 2019, the New Hampshire legislature overrode Governor Sununu's veto of its legislation repealing the death penalty, making New Hampshire the 21st state in the nation to abolish or overturn the death penalty.
October 2018, the Washington State Supreme Court unanimously declared the state’s death penalty unconstitutional, making it the 20th state to abolish the death penalty.
State Death Penalty Reform
Twenty-three states and Washington, D.C. have abolished the death penalty, while an additional three states have a governor-issued moratorium. NACDL has engaged in state legislative efforts across the country to abolish the death penalty. Consider joining NACDL’s State Criminal Justice Network (SCJN) to exchange information, share resources, and develop strategies for repealing the death penalty and enacting other pressing reforms.
State Criminal Justice Network
Ep.56 – Forthcoming Documentary: "In The Executioner’s Shadow"
Ep.56 – Forthcoming Documentary: "In The Executioner’s Shadow" -- In this episode, we hear from American University School of Communication Professor Rick Stack about a forthcoming, very important documentary concerning the death penalty in America, entitled In The Executioner’s Shadow. This documentary is co-produced by Rick Stack and Professor Maggie Burnette Stogner, also of the American University School of Communication. And the project has been made possible through the support of American University. On Wednesday, April 11, the American University School of Communication will be hosting the first pre-screening of the film. The event is open to the public. Following the pre-screening, there will be a panel discussion. The panel will consist of the three primary characters in the documentary as well as both filmmakers and Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty. Learn more about NACDL. Ivan J. Dominguez, host. Music West Bank (Lezet) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 and Walkabout (Digital Primitives) / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.
