GC1Y 1000 The Capital Punishment Debate: Assignment Specific

This page links to yearly reports about inmates under death sentence (UDS) at the beginning of each calendar year since 2000. Each report shows the number and names of UDS cases that were added, executed, died, or had their sentence overturned or commuted. It also contains a complete list of UDS inmates, showing name, race, birthdate, sentence date, and county of conviction.

Search by GDC ID or Case Number

EVALUATING FAIRNESS AND ACCURACY IN STATE DEATH PENALTY SYSTEMS:
The Georgia Death Penalty Assessment Report
2006

The Death Penalty Information Center is a national non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment. Contains Fully searchable execution database and other useful data.

The Cornell Death Penalty Project is an undertaking of the Cornell Law School. The project sponsors several clinics that provide students with the opportunity to assist in the representation of capital defendants, both at trial and at various stages in the appeals process. The project also sponsors periodic symposia related to capital punishment and, in addition, conducts empirical research relating to the administration of capital punishment in the United States.

The Capital Punishment Project works toward the repeal of the death penalty in the United States through strategic litigation, advocacy, public education, and training programs for capital defense teams.

The Southern Center for Human Rights represents individuals on death row at trial, on appeal, and in the post-conviction review process. In doing so, we all too often discover that a person who had been sentenced to death has a history of extraordinarily serious abuse or neglect which was never presented to the judge or jury.

Data and Info

Statistics on U.S. crime, offenders and the justice system. Also links to other government and international sources, criminal justice data sets and abstracts of data sets.

Research data available from ICPSR, Bureau of Justice Statistics, and National Institute of Justice.

This section presents statistics on persons on probation and parole, jails and jail inmates, characteristics of State and Federal prison populations, juveniles in custody, prisoners with HIV, persons serving a military prison sentence, prisoners serving a death sentence, and prisoners executed.

Huntsville, Texas, a friendly, bucolic university town, is also known as "The Execution Capital of the World." This sobering program takes a close look at both sides of Huntsville, as it profiles deceased inmates Bettie Lou Beets, Billy George Hughes, and Timothy Gribble. Interviews with Huntsville’s mayor, prison officials, legal counsel, victims’ family members, former inmates, death penalty advocates and opponents, and, only days before his execution, convict Gribble himself offer a broad perspective on the American penal system and prison industry. The program also goes inside the Death House, traveling the same route that inmates follow on their last walk. (

British correspondent Trevor McDonald goes inside one of America's most notorious maximum security correctional facilities—Indiana State Maximum Security Prison—where he comes face-to-face with twelve condemned men awaiting execution. In the first of two episodes, McDonald meets Benjamin Ritchie, who faces the death penalty for killing a policeman. Ritchie talks about the moments before his capture and how he felt on hearing the sentence. John Stephenson, who assassinated three people on the orders of a criminal gang, talks about friendships on death row--and survival.

Two of the youngest men on death row in Texas face execution day. Victim Nikki Daniels reflects on her kidnapping ordeal by murderer Richard Cobb. The mother of death row inmate Anthony Haynes fights to use the final 72 hours to halt her son's execution for the murder of an off-duty police officer. This three part series tells the story of capital punishment through the eyes of the young people whose lives were shaped by violent experiences. Episode One.

This film follows the trial of 26-year-old Guy Heinze Jr, with remarkable access to the jury members charged with reaching a verdict on allegations that Heinze beat his father and seven members of his family to death. As the trial progresses, there is legal maneuvering while evidence about the brutal killings unfolds. Film contains content that may not be suitable for all audiences.

The final film of the series follows 25-year-old legal student Kelly Hickman as she attempts to save two young killers facing execution. Robert Pruett was sentenced to death for murdering a prison guard at the age of 20. Robert Garza was a member of the notorious Tri-City Bombers street gang and sentenced to death at the age of 20 for his part in the drive-by killing of four young women. Hickman's team works on the two cases where all of the offenders' normal legal appeals have failed and they are now just weeks away from execution.

What happens before a murder? In looking for ways to reduce death penalty cases, David R. Dow realized that a surprising number of death row inmates have had similar biographies. In this TEDTalk he proposes a bold plan—one that prevents murders in the first place. Death penalty lawyer David R. Dow has defended more than 100 death row inmates in 20 years.