The 2% Death Penalty: How a Minority of Counties Produce Most Death Cases at Enormous Costs to All

Only two percent of U.S. counties have been responsible for the majority of cases leading to executions since 1976, according to this report by the Death Penalty Information Center.

The disparate and highly clustered use of the death penalty raises serious questions of unequal, costly and arbitrary application of the law.

Six states have ended the death penalty in the last six years. The report concludes more states may soon follow suit, viewing the death penalty as the insistent campaign of a few at tremendous cost to the many.

Learn More

> More information about this report from the Death Penalty Information Center

Media Coverage

> U.S. Counties Killing The Most People Are Good At Getting Death Penalty, Not So Good At Justice, Huffington Post, 19 November 2013

Death Penalty Information Center is an Atlantic grantee through a re-grant from Proteus Action League.