Fifty years after the US Supreme Court re-legalized the death penalty in Gregg v Georgia, a comprehensive analysis by the Marshall Project reveals that the system is not working as intended. Examining over 9,000 death sentences handed down since states reinstated capital punishment, the data shows that fewer than one in five people sent to death row have been executed, with delays, racial disparities, and high costs plaguing the process.
Low Execution Rates and Long Delays
The analysis, released on the 50th anniversary of the 1976 decision, finds that most death sentences do not end in execution. Instead, more than a third have been overturned by courts, often due to prosecutorial misconduct or ineffective defense. The average person executed in 2024 waited nearly 27 years on death row, up from 12 years three decades ago. "Our system is an epic fail," said Frank Baumgartner, a University of North Carolina professor who gathered the data. "Every flaw they sought to rectify has been a failure, and now there are new problems that didn't used to exist."
Racial Disparities and Arbitrariness Persist
Black individuals remain overrepresented on state death rows. Whether a defendant receives the death penalty often depends more on the county where the crime occurred than the crime itself, echoing the arbitrariness the 1972 Furman v Georgia ruling sought to eliminate. Defense lawyers, often funded federally, have successfully challenged sentences based on racial bias in jury selection and inadequate representation.
Commutations and Political Factors
In more than 400 cases, governors or presidents have commuted death sentences. Reasons include state abolition (23 states have ended capital punishment) or political decisions, such as Joe Biden commuting 37 federal death sentences before leaving office, excluding three high-profile mass shooters. Some governors, like Gavin Newsom of California and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, have halted executions without commutations, leaving over 700 inmates on death row in those states—a de facto life sentence costing taxpayers millions.
Declining Support and Future Uncertainty
Public support for the death penalty has fallen to about 50%, and pharmaceutical companies refusing to supply drugs for lethal injections have slowed executions. While some governors like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott prioritize executions, others have given up. The system's future remains unclear, with Donald Trump advocating for expanded use, including firing squads. However, the fundamental problems—racial bias, arbitrariness, delays, and risk of executing the innocent—remain unresolved. "They're not leaving, so they're just going to go into geriatric care," Baumgartner said of the over 2,000 inmates currently on death row, more than a quarter of whom have been there for over 30 years.
