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The execution chamber at the Huntsville Unit in Huntsville, Texas.
Coronavirus March 23, 2020
How Coronavirus is Disrupting the Death Penalty
Colorado abolished capital punishment. But COVID-19 is pausing it everywhere else.
By and
Nebraska’s lethal injection chamber at the State Penitentiary in Lincoln.
News August 13, 2015
Life After Nebraska’s Death Penalty
How other states dealt with their death rows after killing capital punishment.
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Kim Foxx, who successfully ran for Cook County State’s Attorney, talked with customers at Manny’s Cafeteria in Chicago in November 2016.
Commentary May 2, 2017
The Limits of Prosecutorial Power
There are criminal justice actors more powerful than prosecutors.
Jeffrey Bellin
Voters in Hialeah, Florida, outside Miami cast their ballots on Nov. 6.
Commentary November 13, 2018
Voters Want Criminal Justice Reform. Are Politicians Listening?
Midterms show wide support across party lines for changing the system.
Daniel Gotoff and Celinda Lake
Prisoners stand in line at Elmore Correctional Facility in Elmore, Ala., in 2015. Thousands of Alabama prisoners began a work strike this week to protest poor prison conditions.
Closing Argument October 1, 2022
What an Alabama Prisoners’ Strike Tells Us About Prison Labor
Exploitation of incarcerated people isn’t limited to lockups. Voters in some states have a chance to curtail it.
By
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signs a gun bill at the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s office on June. 24.
Analysis June 26, 2015
Scott Walker on Crime and Punishment: Back to the ‘90s
As his rivals ease up, one candidate hangs tough
By
A women kneels in front of a memorial at Gold Spa, one of three Atlanta-area spas targeted in a mass shooting that killed eight people, on March 18, 2021.
Death Sentences April 5, 2021
Death Penalty for Mass Shooters? Depends On Where They Strike.
The men arrested in recent killings in Atlanta, Boulder, Colorado, and Orange, California, could face very different sentences if convicted.
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Attorney General Eric Holder in December.
News January 7, 2015
Eric Holder, Dzhokar Tsarnaev, and the Death Penalty
The attorney general’s last word.
By
Looking Back March 16, 2015
Cecil Clayton, a Man Missing Part of His Brain, is About to Be Executed
And he is not the first.
By
Jacque Wilson, left, and his father, Mack Wilson, right, testify about their brother and son Neko Wilson, during a California Assembly Public Safety Committee hearing at the State Capitol in Sacramento in June.
News October 18, 2018
Nearly a Decade Awaiting Trial, Now Freed
Neko Wilson to be released in the first test of California’s felony murder law.
By
News January 18, 2017
How Obama Disappointed on the Death Penalty
Two commutations this week was less than many had hoped for.
By
President Donald Trump meets with county sheriffs during a listening session in the White House.
News February 8, 2017
“If Someone is Bringing Drugs into Mar-a-Lago, Police Could Try to Seize it.”
Donald Trump faces a fight on asset forfeiture.
By
Justice Lab January 15, 2015
‘Blame Liberals’
A new book faults Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden and the NAACP for our prison state.
By
A conjugal visit bedroom at Auburn State Prison in Auburn, N.Y.
News February 11, 2015
‘Heaven’
Happiness is a family sleepover.
By Sheila Anne Feeney
A photo of Colleen Khalifa, right, with her son Shawn Khalifa, center, and her daughter Jennifer Ponce, left, and Ponce’s son Jackson Ponce, taken during a visit to the Coalinga State Hospital where Shawn was being treated.
The California Experiment June 27, 2018
Can It Be Murder If You Didn’t Kill Anyone?
A distinctly American legal doctrine holds getaway drivers and lookouts as responsible for a death as the actual killer. California is having second thoughts.
By
Q&A November 16, 2015
The Odds of Overturning the Death Penalty
The man who helped topple it (briefly) in 1972 gauges the likelihood of success.
By
The still to be used lethal injection room at San Quentin State Prison, California. Opened in 2010 at the cost of $853,000.
News December 9, 2015
Highlights From Our Death Penalty Discussion
Journalists Liliana Segura, Gabriel Dance and Maurice Chammah took your questions about the death penalty and criminal justice reporting. Here are some of the highlights.
By
Commentary February 27, 2015
The Killing of Jimmie Lee Jackson
How a post-Civil War massacre impacted racial justice in America.
By Debo Adegbile
A woman enters a tan bricked building, with the signage "justice building" above the door.
Closing Argument January 7, 2023
How Two States Differ on the Injustice of Non-Unanimous Juries
Oregon and Louisiana eliminated the practice, which had white supremacist roots. But they differ on whether to retroactively overturn those convictions.
By
News September 22, 2015
Life Without Parole: For Juveniles, 5 Tough Counties
New study places a quarter of the sentences in a handful of urban areas.
By
The Lowdown September 24, 2015
Charged With Murder Without Killing Anyone
The paradox of “felony murder” laws.
By
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives held a demonstration for students at the Horry County Police Department Bomb Squad near Myrtle Beach, S.C. in 2013.
News May 19, 2015
ATF’s Greatest Hits
Is it time to dismantle the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives?
By
Inside the execution chamber at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas.
News December 7, 2015
The Death Penalty in 2015
Join us for a chat on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. about the state of the death penalty in 2015, and what's to come in 2016
By
Kim Gardner was elected as the chief prosecutor in St. Louis in 2017.
News January 17, 2019
One Way To Deal With Cops Who Lie? Blacklist Them, Some DAs Say
Newly elected prosecutors won’t take cases from unreliable officers—but are these no-call lists fair?
By and
Associate Judge Pamela Woodcock Pfeiffer embraces a U.S. Army veteran after he completed a program at the Veterans Treatment Court at the Kent County Courthouse in Warwick, R.I., in 2016.
News February 19, 2019
Special Courts for Veterans Languish
There’s little money and apparently little demand.
By
Feature July 10, 2015
Life Without Parole
Inside the secretive world of parole boards, where your freedom may depend on politics and whim.
By
Commentary November 30, 2014
What Death Penalty Opponents Don’t Get
There are fates worse than death.
By Jam ES Ridgeway and Jean Casella
Graphics February 12, 2015
The Cost of Crime Fighting
Reading between the line items of Department of Justice budgets, past and present.
By
Brandon L. Garrett
Q&A October 2, 2017
What’s Behind the Decline in the Death Penalty?
A new book explores the slow demise of the ultimate punishment.
By
An illustration shows a Black man in a white T-shirt with his arms around an older Black woman in a polka-dotted shirt and an older Black man in a newsboy cap and black T-shirt. The left side of the illustration shows a freeway, with trees at the edge of the road.
Life Inside May 12, 2023
My Brother Was Wrongfully Convicted for Murder. 20 Years Later, So Was My Son.
Although it was a coincidence, I knew it wasn’t a mistake. What Louisiana was doing to men like my brother Elvis and my son Cedric was intentional.
By Earline Brooks Colbert, as told to
Ronnie Peterson, a man with short brown hair, light-toned skin and wearing a turquoise polo shirt, and Bridget Peterson, a woman with medium-length blonde hair, light-toned skin and wearing a navy blue T-shirt, kneel at the grave of their son, with their hands resting on the gravestone.
News June 22, 2022
Louisiana Limits Solitary Confinement for Youth
The governor signed the state’s first law restricting isolation for youth after two suicides and an investigation by The Marshall Project, ProPublica and NBC News into harsh conditions in a new juvenile facility.
By , Erin Einhorn, and Annie Waldman
A black and white photo of an empty electric chair through a doorway.
Death Sentences June 29, 2022
The Supreme Court Let The Death Penalty Flourish. Now Americans are Ending It Themselves.
As Roe v. Wade ends, a look back at how the court reversed itself on capital punishment — spurring an anti-death penalty movement.
By
Analysis January 12, 2016
Could One of These Cases Spell the End of the Death Penalty?
Abolitionists seek the perfect case for a Supreme Court challenge.
By
D’Angelo Burgess was fleeing from police when an Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer was struck and killed by another patrolman during the chase.
Case in Point May 30, 2019
D’Angelo Burgess Fled From Police. Does That Make Him a Killer?
An Oklahoma case raises issues about both felony murder charges and high-speed police pursuits.
By
A Black man, wearing a KN95 mask, red shirt, red cap and camo pants, reviews a document while sitting in a courtroom.
Closing Argument July 15, 2023
For Many, a Lawyer Is a Luxury Out of Reach
Sixty years after a landmark Supreme Court ruling, the promise of legal representation for everyone is largely unrealized.
By
News December 1, 2014
A Plea from the Right
Conservative stalwarts urge Texas to spare Scott Panetti.
By
News February 24, 2015
Debtors’ Prisons, Then and Now: FAQ
Congress outlawed them. The Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional. Yet they live on.
By
Brian Dorsey, a White man with glasses wearing a white shirt, at the Potosi Correctional Center.
Death Sentences April 3, 2024
He Faces Execution. His Lawyers May Have Earned Less Than $4 per Hour.
Some death penalty lawyers get paid the same no matter how long they work on a case. Critics say it’s a perverse incentive when a life is at stake.
By and
An illustration shows four outlined boxes with yellow silhouettes of different body parts against a grunge black and yellow background.
Violation September 26, 2023
Jacob Wideman Says ‘Vindictive’ Arizona Officials Violated His Rights
A “Violation” podcast update brings listeners into Wideman’s case against state corrections and parole officials.
By
An illustration shows four outlined boxes with yellow silhouettes of different body parts against a grunge black and yellow background.
Violation December 11, 2023
The Court Ruling Jacob Wideman Was Waiting For
A “Violation” podcast update brings listeners the latest news in Wideman’s case, including his reaction to a ruling that leaves him few paths to freedom.
By
An illustration of a man balancing on a tightrope, high above a building surrounded with barbed wire.
Feature October 25, 2022
Fetterman and Oz Battle Over Pennsylvania’s Felony Murder Law
Does opposing mandatory life without parole make a U.S. Senate candidate “pro-murderer”?
By and
News December 14, 2015
The Bureaucracy of Mercy
Why hasn’t President Obama freed more prisoners? Maybe that’s the wrong question.
By
Feature November 11, 2021
Two Strikes and You’re in Prison Forever
Why Florida leads the nation in people serving life without chance of parole.
By , and Dan Sullivan
Feature November 11, 2021
He Got a Life Sentence When He Was 22 — For Robbery
Black men are most affected by Florida’s two-strikes law.
By Dan Sullivan, and
Fulton, a White woman with blonde hair, sits on a gray couch next to picture frames holding photos that show her daughter Desiree, a young White girl.
Death Sentences March 7
She’s Waited Decades for David Wood’s Execution. Now, Evidence Casts Doubt on His Guilt.
The case of a victim’s mother and one of the longest-serving death row prisoners shows how capital appeals can seem both endless and rushed.
By
Feature December 17, 2014
The Slow Death of the Death Penalty
The public supports it, but the costs are lethal.
By
Justices on the United States Supreme Court in 1976.
Commentary March 30, 2016
It’s Been 40 Years Since the Supreme Court Tried to Fix the Death Penalty — Here’s How It Failed
A close look at the grand compromise of 1976.
By Evan J. Mandery
Q&A July 15, 2016
Dallas’s Deputy Chief on Race, Despair, and Learning from Police Shootings
“My life has to matter, too.”
By
Feature January 9, 2020
Think Debtors Prisons Are a Thing of the Past? Not in Mississippi.
How the state’s “restitution program” forces poor people to work off small debts.
By Anna Wolfe and Michelle Liu
Death Sentences February 10, 2021
What 120 Executions Tell Us About Criminal Justice in America
The Marshall Project tracked every execution in America for more than five years. For condemned people, the path to death grew longer, more winding and erratic.
By
The System October 28, 2020
The Ins and Outs of Bail
A tool that is supposed to ensure that people make their court dates has become another avenue for class and race inequities.
By and
Feature January 6, 2019
The Volunteer
More than a year ago, Nevada death row prisoner Scott Dozier gave up his legal appeals and asked to be executed. He’s still waiting.
By
Jerry Jurek was convicted of killing 10-year-old Wendy Adams in 1973. His case went to the Supreme Court as one of several testing new death penalty laws around the country. Pictured here in 1979, left, and 2015, right.
Looking Back January 26, 2021
The Case That Made Texas the Death Penalty Capital
In an excerpt from his new book, ‘Let the Lord Sort Them,’ Marshall Project staff writer Maurice Chammah explains where a 1970s legal team fighting the death penalty went wrong.
By
Election 2020 April 8, 2020
2020: The Democrats on Criminal Justice
The candidates who vied with Joe Biden to challenge President Trump in November—including Kamala Harris—staked out positions on bail reform, marijuana, immigration and more. Here’s where they stood.
By and
Violation April 5, 2023
‘A Trap for the Unwary’: The Power and Paradox of Parole Boards
Part Three of the “Violation” podcast examines America’s opaque parole system and how Jacob Wideman prepared to argue for his release.
By
The System October 30, 2020
The State of Bail Reform
Bail reform is state-by-state and full of fits and starts. Some activists are taking direct action, raising funds to bail out defendants too poor to pay.
By and
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