WASHINGTON — The Death Penalty Information Center released its 2026 Mid-Year Report on Thursday, finding that American juries continue to reject death sentences despite renewed efforts by state officials to expand capital punishment and shield its administration from public scrutiny. The report argues that those efforts have coincided with historic levels of secrecy, policy changes and public disinformation aimed at preserving the practice.
According to the report, the first six months of 2026 have been defined by a push from government actors to obscure execution details from public scrutiny. The report underscores that these state-level efforts have occurred alongside a decades-long decline in public confidence.
By June 2026, the U.S. death row population had dropped below 2,000 people for the first time since the 1980s, representing a 47% decline from a peak of 3,726 people in 2001, according to the DPI.
The report also examines the deep systemic flaws and persistent racial disparities underlying capital punishment. Nine of the 16 individuals executed in 2026 were Black, disproportionate to both the overall percentage of Black defendants executed since 1976 (34%) and the percentage of people currently on death row (40%).
The DPI also highlights the continuation of what it calls the “white victim preference.” The 16 individuals executed in 2026 were convicted of killing a combined total of 22 victims, 14 of whom were white. Since 1976, 75% of the victims in cases resulting in the death penalty have been white, despite white individuals accounting for approximately half of all homicide victims nationwide.
The report also states that the 16 death sentences imposed by capital juries in 2026 came from Alabama and Florida, the two states that allow nonunanimous juries to impose death sentences, according to the DPI.
The report details how state legislatures have worked to insulate execution practices from public accountability and judicial oversight. In the past several months alone, both Kentucky and Idaho have expanded their secrecy policies, including provisions that prevent the public from knowing how elected officials are administering the death penalty.
In Kentucky, a state the DPI noted has not carried out an execution since 2008, legislators voted to override Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto and enact a law allowing execution protocols to bypass the state’s usual administrative rulemaking process.
Similarly, Idaho passed new legislation providing that execution procedures no longer require judicial review under the Idaho Administrative Procedure Act. The law previously established procedures governing how state agencies adopt new rules to promote transparency, public participation and accountability.
The DPI also highlights a split decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June 2026, when the court upheld an Indiana law prohibiting journalists from witnessing executions unless they are invited directly by the prisoner. An appeal of that decision is pending.
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi wrote, “A government exercises its greatest power when it ends a person’s life … As I see it, such severe and irreversible punishment on behalf of ‘the people’ must be observable to comply with the Constitution.”
The report also states that state execution methods continue to face constitutional challenges. In a June 2026 ruling, a federal district court permanently barred Alabama from using its controversial nitrogen gas protocol to execute Jeffery Lee, who was on death row.
According to the report, the court determined that the method violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment after witnesses reported seeing prisoners experience severe pain and distress.
At the federal level, the Department of Justice has emphasized initiatives to fast-track capital appeals by shortening filing deadlines and limiting federal court review. However, the federal government has continued to face substantial legal setbacks and public opposition.
In a January 2026 federal ruling, for example, prosecutors were effectively blocked from seeking the death penalty in the upcoming trial of Luigi Mangione, who is accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The report concludes that despite efforts by states to expand capital punishment, juries continue to reject death sentences. According to the semiannual data, “capital juries chose life sentences more often than death—at least 19 times this year.”
As state officials continue using legislative tactics to shield the realities of capital punishment from public view, the DPI’s data suggests that transparency remains one of the greatest challenges to the death penalty’s continued use.
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