List of death row inmates in the United States

As of April 1, 2025^[update], there were 2,067 death row inmates in the United States, including 46 women.^[1] The number of death row inmates changes frequently with new convictions, appellate decisions overturning conviction or sentence alone, commutations, or deaths (through execution or otherwise).^[2] Due to this fluctuation as well as lag and inconsistencies in inmate reporting procedures across jurisdictions, the information may become outdated.

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Name	Crime	Time on death row	Imprisoned at	Register number	Notes
Robert Gregory Bowers	Perpetrator of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting; an antisemitic terrorist attack in which eleven people were murdered.	1 year, 283 days	USP Terre Haute	39188-068	The shooting was the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the United States.
Dylann Roof	Perpetrator of the Charleston church shooting on June 17, 2015, which killed nine African Americans.	8 years, 123 days	USP Terre Haute	28509-171	American mass murderer and white supremacist who, during a prayer service at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, sat down with his future victims for approximately 45 minutes before pulling out a Glock 41 .45-caliber handgun. Among those people who were killed was the senior pastor and state senator Clementa C. Pinckney. Roof is the first person on death row for federal hate crimes.^[9]
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev	Co-perpetrator of the Boston Marathon bombing which killed three people and injured 264 runners and spectators.^[10]	9 years, 323 days	ADX Florence	95079-038	Chechen-American, Islamic terrorism^[11] inspired lone wolf who, along with his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, perpetrated the attack. Tamerlan later died due to critical injuries and massive blood loss during a shootout with police on April 19, 2013. On July 31, 2020, Tsarnaev's death sentence was overturned on appeal, but was reinstated by the US Supreme Court two years later.

Name	Crime	Time on death row	Notes
Hasan Karim Akbar^[14] (born as Mark Fidel Kools)	Murdered two commissioned officers and wounded eleven other servicemen during an attack in Kuwait on March 23, 2003 after throwing a hand grenade and opening fire upon his fellow troops.	20 years, 12 days
Ronald Adrin Gray	Raped and murdered multiple women at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, from December 15, 1986, to January 6, 1987. His convictions include 4 counts of murder and 8 counts of rape	36 years, 318 days	On November 26, 2008, a federal judge issued a stay of execution stopping the planned December 10 execution. Gray is the military's longest-serving death row inmate and the only one to have his execution approved by the President.
Nidal Malik Hasan^[15]	Perpetrator of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting.	11 years, 258 days	Convicted on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder.
Timothy B. Hennis^[16]	Raped and murdered Kathryn Eastburn, and murdered Kathryn's two daughters, Kara and Erin Eastburn in 1985.	15 years, 28 days	Previously convicted in 1986 by the State of North Carolina, retried and acquitted in 1989, and widely reported as exonerated; recalled to active duty for military court martial (as he had been in the U.S. Army at the time of the murders) under separate sovereignty (see Double jeopardy).

Name	Description of crime	Time on death row	Other
Donald Broadnax	Murdered his wife, 42-year-old Hector Jan Stamps, and her grandson, 4-year-old DeAngelo Marquez Stamps.	27 years, 243 days	The crimes were committed while he was on work release from a previous murder conviction.
John Joseph DeBlase	Murdered four-year-old Natalie DeBlase and three-year-old Chase DeBlase, the biological children of John DeBlase and stepchildren of Leavell-Keaton	10 years, 125 days	On two separate occasions in March and June 2010 respectively, Natalie and Chase were being poisoned with antifreeze and also bound and gagged with tape, and died from the abuse. The children's bodies were found buried in Alabama and Mississippi. Leavell-Keaton was the first woman to be given the death penalty in Mobile County.
Heather Leavell-Keaton		9 years, 266 days
Thomas Dale Ferguson	Murdered 11-year-old Joey Pugh and his 41-year-old father Harold Pugh in Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve, Alabama.	26 years, 247 days	Ferguson and Maxwell and three other men intended to rob the Pughs of their truck in order to commit a bank robbery in Mississippi, and both Ferguson and Maxwell shot the father-son pair to death. Maxwell was sentenced to death by a 10–2 vote from the jury, while Ferguson was sentenced to death by the judge despite the jury's 11-1 majority vote for life imprisonment. Two of the other co-accused were sentenced to life in prison while the final member was jailed for 15 years for robbery after he testified against the others.
Michael Craig Maxwell		26 years, 317 days
Shonelle Jackson	Murdered LeFrick Moore during the commission of a robbery.	23 years, 360 days
Toforest Johnson	Shot and murdered 49-year-old Jefferson County deputy sheriff William Hardy in 1995.	26 years, 195 days	Johnson's conviction was controversial as his guilty verdict as centered on the testimony of a single witness who overheard Johnson allegedly admitting to the murder in a prison phone call. There were several alibi witnesses who testified that Johnson was at another part of the town when Hardy was killed, giving rise to concerns that Johnson was innocent.
Jeremy Bryan Jones	Raped and murdered 43-year-old Lisa Marie Nichols.	19 years, 199 days	Jones also confessed to committing twenty additional murders across four other states in a 12-year span. These confessions are considered dubious and he has since recanted them.
Jeffrey Lee	Murdered singer Jimmy "Orion" Ellis and Elaine Thompson (Jimmy's ex-wife) during a robbery.	24 years, 214 days
Courtney Lockhart	Kidnapped and murdered 18-year-old Auburn University freshman Lauren Burk.	14 years, 72 days
Devin Moore	Murdered two police officers and a dispatcher.	19 years, 219 days
Cuhuatemoc Peraita	Killed a fellow inmate in 1999.	23 years, 193 days	Peraita was originally serving life without parole for his role in the 1994 murders of three Popeyes restaurant workers. His accomplice was executed for these murders in 2017.
Kerry Spencer	Killed three Birmingham police officers in 2004.	19 years, 232 days	Spencer shot all three officers and testified that he acted alone, but his alleged accomplice, Nathaniel Woods, was also sentenced to death. Woods was executed in 2020 in a highly publicized and controversial execution.
Christie Michelle Scott	Killed her six-year-old autistic son Mason Scott by arson in 2008.	15 years, 281 days	Scott intentionally engineered the murder of her son Mason by starting a fire and disguising it as an accident. Scott's motive was to collect insurance money amounting to $175,000 through the death of Mason.
Jeremy Tremaine Williams	Raped, sodomized and murdered five-year-old Kamarie Holland in December 2021.	1 year, 28 days	Williams was also charged for allegedly killing his one-month-old daughter in 2005 in Alaska. The victim's mother, Kristy Siple, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the sex trafficking of her daughter and allowing Williams to rape her daughter.

Name	Description of crime	Time on death row	Other
John Allen	Murder of his wife's cousin, Ame Deal.	7 years, 178 days	On July 12, 2011, police officers were called to ten-year-old Ame Deal's home, where she was found dead in a small foot locker, having suffocated. Ame lived with a number of relatives, including her aunt and legal guardian, Cynthia Stoltzmann. Allen was Stoltzmann's daughter. The family first told the police officers that Ame was playing hide-n-seek and locked herself in the trunk the night before, after the adults went to sleep. During interrogation, Sammantha and her husband John confessed to locking Ame in the trunk as a form of punishment, because she took a popsicle without permission.^{[citation needed]}
Sammantha Allen	Murder of her cousin, Ame Deal.	7 years, 279 days
Wendi Andriano	Murder of her husband Joseph "Joe" Andriano.	20 years, 142 days	During the early morning hours of October 8, 2000, Wendi Andriano bludgeoned her 33-year-old husband Joseph to death with a bar stool and stabbed him in the neck with a thirteen-inch knife in the couple's Ahwatukee, Arizona apartment. His autopsy revealed that he had sustained 23 blows to the skull, and traces of sodium azide were also found in his system.^[21] Approximately one hour before Joe's murder, his wife Wendi had called 911 at the behest of a co-worker, claiming that her terminally ill husband was dying. When paramedics arrived however, Wendi turned them away, stating that Joe had a do-not-resuscitate order, and that his wish was to die. Paramedics left the scene. One hour later, Wendi called 911 again, reporting that she had stabbed and beaten her husband to death in self-defense. She also made claims that her husband was physically and psychologically abusive toward her. However, being that Joe was weak from chemotherapy and the sodium azide poisoning, he was unable to defend himself.^[21]
Trent Benson	Rapes and murders of two prostitutes, 21-year-old Alisa Marie Beck and 44-year-old Karen Jane Campbell in Mesa, committed in 2004 and 2007, respectively.	13 years, 218 days	Benson is serving 135 years imprisonment for two unrelated sexual assaults, and police believe he might be responsible for further crimes.
Jason Eugene Bush	Murdered 29-year-old Raul Flores and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia, in Arivaca, Arizona, during a home invasion.	14 years, 37 days	Had ties with the Aryan Nations, a white supremacist group. Convicted for four murders in total, and two suspected killings in 1997, was sentenced to death and received 78 years for other crimes just one month after his death sentence.
Shawna Forde		14 years, 80 days	On May 30, 2009, Forde was active in the Minuteman movement, a grassroots anti-illegal immigration group that would station themselves along the U.S. southern border and keep watch for Mexicans crossing the border illegally and alert the Border Patrol. Forde allegedly boasted of robbing drug dealers to finance the movement. Prosecutors alleged Forde and her associates entered the trailer disguised as government officials looking for fugitives. No drugs were found in the trailer.^[22] Albert Gaxiola, who participated in the May 30, 2009 murders, received life without parole plus 54 years.^[23]
Richard Djerf	Murder of the Luna family.	28 years, 356 days	Djerf and Albert Luna Jr. met and became friends while working at a Safeway supermarket. In January 1993, Luna burgled Djerf's apartment. Djerf told police he suspected Luna, but they took no action. In September of that year, Djerf entered the Luna home and killed Luna's father, mother, and two siblings over the course of several hours.^[24]
Mark Goudeau	Series of rapes and murders.	13 years, 164 days	Goudeau is a serial killer and rapist, referred to as the Baseline Killer by law enforcement and media prior to his identification. Goudeau is believed to have committed nine counts of first degree murder (eight women and one man), in addition to fifteen sexual assaults on women and young girls, eleven counts of kidnapping, and a number of armed robberies.^[25]^[26]
Charles Michael Hedlund	Murdered 40-year-old Christine Mertens and 65-year-old James McClain in separate burglaries.	31 years, 287 days	Both defendants, who are half-brothers, were sentenced to death
James Erin McKinney		31 years, 294 days
Cory Morris	Murdered five women between September 2002 and April 2003.	19 years, 298 days	Serial killer known as "The Crackhead Killer".
Scott Douglas Nordstrom	One of the two gunmen involved in the 1996 Tucson murders	26 years, 359 days (first sentence; overturned) 15 years, 227 days (second sentence)^[27]^[28]	Nordstrom was originally handed six death sentences in 1998, before his first death sentence was vacated for re-sentencing. Nordstrom was given two death sentences in his 2009 re-trial, in addition to four consecutive life terms without parole. Nordstrom's accomplice Robert Glen Jones Jr. was sentenced to death and executed on October 23, 2013. David Nordstrom, who was the get-away driver of the pair, was jailed for armed robbery after agreeing to testify against his brother and Jones in their respective murder trials.
Roger Mark Scott	Shooting death of 4-year-old Christopher Milke	34 years, 21 days	Co-defendants James Lynn Styers and the boy's mother Debra Milke were also sentenced to death. Milke's conviction was overturned in 2015.
Preston Strong	Murdered a family of six in 2005.	8 years, 7 days	Strong was already serving a life sentence for murdering a physician when he was sentenced to death.
James Lynn Styers	Shooting death of 4-year-old Christopher Milke	34 years, 150 days	Co-defendants Roger Mark Scott and the boy's mother Debra Milke were also sentenced to death. Milke's conviction was overturned in 2015.
Robert Lee Walden	Rape and murder of 31-year-old Miguela Burhans in her Tucson apartment on June 13, 1991.	32 years, 155 days	Walden is also serving five life terms for another murder and four rapes, all committed within the Tucson area from 1989 to 1991. He has also been linked to a third murder, for which he has never been charged.
Ronald Turney Williams	Murder of a man in 1981	41 years, 20 days	Williams is currently serving two life terms in West Virginia for the murders of two police officers, who were killed four years apart. He killed one of them in 1979 while escaping prison and was later captured after he killed the man in Arizona.

Name	Description of crime	Time on death row	Other
Randy William Gay	Shot and killed 49-year-old Connie Snow, a stranger with whom he had gotten into an argument.	10 years, 55 days	Had previously murdered his father-in-law and biological father in two separate incidents, in 1978 and 1991, respectively.
Zachary Holly	Abducted, raped and strangled 6-year-old Jersey Bridgeman.	9 years, 351 days
Karl Roberts	Raped and murdered 12-year-old Andria “Andi” Brewer.	24 years, 359 days	Andria Brewer was the daughter of former Arkansas state representative Rebecca Petty.

Name	Description of crime	Time on death row	Other
William Clyde Gibson	Rape and bludgeoning of 75-year-old Christine Whitis.	11 years, 183 days	Whitis was a family friend who had come to his New Albany home to console Gibson after his mother's death.^[45] Gibson has pleaded guilty to three murders. After he was arrested for Whitis' murder, police excavated Gibson's yard to recover the body of Stephanie Kirk, a 35-year-old Charlestown woman who disappeared in 2012. He also admitted to fatally stabbing Karen Hodella of Port Orange, Florida, in October 2002.^[46]^[47]
Eric Darnell Holmes	Stabbed to death 20-year-old Theresa Blosl and 30-year-old Charles Ervin.	32 years, 48 days	Holmes was fired from his job at Shoney's Restaurant after an argument with co-worker Amy Foshee. At closing on the day of his firing, Holmes waited in the parking lot with Michael Vance. Holmes and Vance attacked Foshee and two managers as they exited the building, stabbing them multiple times, and stealing the bank deposit money. The restaurant managers, Theresa Blosl and Charles Ervin, died; Foshee survived. Vance was tried separately and sentenced to 190 years.^[45]
Kevin Charles Isom	Shot his wife, 40-year-old Cassandra Isom and his two stepchildren, 16-year-old Michael Moore and 13-year-old Ci'Andria Cole.	12 years, 66 days	The crime was in response to learning his wife was planning to leave him. He then barricaded himself in the family's apartment and shot at police officers attempting to take him into custody.^[45] Isom's defense attorney argued that a death sentence was inappropriate given the emotional state of his client, who suffered an extreme emotional disturbance from losing his job and then being left by his wife. However, the prosecution pointed out that he was extremely abusive and unfaithful to his wife and drove her away.^[48]
Michael Dean Overstreet	Raped, strangled and shot 18-year-old Kelly Eckart.	24 years, 286 days	Kelly Eckart, an 18-year-old freshman at Franklin College, was last seen on September 27, 1997, after leaving work. The next morning, her car was found abandoned in a rural area, with its lights on and keys in the ignition. She was found in a ravine in Brown County four days later. She had been shot and strangled. Semen found on the body was matched to Overstreet. He has schizoaffective disorder and had hallucinations as a child. He was discharged from the marines on the basis of mental illness.^[45] A judge determined Overstreet was not competent to be executed in November 2014. The Indiana Attorney General chose not to appeal the decision. He remains on death row indefinitely.^[49]
Benjamin Donnie Ritchie	Shot 32-year-old officer William Toney in the chest.^[45]	22 years, 210 days	Ritchie was involved in a police chase after he was spotted driving a stolen vehicle. The chase ended when he crashed the vehicle and proceeded on foot before shooting Toney. Ritchie has a number of cognitive and emotional disorders. He has bipolar disorder and a non-specified cognitive disorder. The cause of the physiological condition was not identified, but experts speculated that several past serious head injuries, his mother's heavy use of drugs and alcohol during pregnancy, his own history of drug use, and a history of childhood abuse were to likely causes.^[50] Scheduled to be executed on May 20, 2025.^[51]
Roy Lee Ward	Rape and stabbing of 15-year-old Stacy Payne in her home.	22 years, 146 days	The victim's 14-year-old sister was sleeping upstairs when she heard the screams of her sister. She called 911. Police found Ward still in the home when they arrived. Ward's first conviction was overturned in 2004 on the basis that pretrial publicity tainted the jury pool. He was again convicted and sentenced to death. Ward has been diagnosed with a number of psychiatric disorders including exhibitionism, antisocial personality disorder, and ADHD.^[52]
Jeffrey Alan Weisheit	Murder by arson of the two children of his girlfriend, 8-year-old Alyssa and 5-year-old Caleb Lynch.	11 years, 306 days	After his arrest, Weisheit admitted stuffing a dish towel in Caleb's mouth and using duct tape to bind his arms behind his back. Two flares were found near the boy's body. Autopsies revealed the children were alive when the fire was set. He told police he did it because Caleb was misbehaving on the night before the fire.^[53] Weisheit has bipolar disorder.^[45]

Name	Description of crime	Time on death row	Other
Terrance Anderson	Murdered Stephen and Debbie Rainwater, his ex-girlfriend's parents.^[62]	23 years, 362 days
William Theodore Boliek Jr.	Murdered 18-year-old Jody Harless in Kansas City in 1983.^[62]	40 years, 153 days^[63]	In 1997, Boliek was granted a stay of execution by Governor Mel Carnahan. Carnahan died in a plane crash in 2000 and Boliek's case was not resolved. A court determined only Carnahan could overturn the stay, effectively leaving Boliek's case in permanent limbo. Governor Jay Nixon's office determined Boliek would not be executed and he will spend the remainder of his life in prison. Boliek is Missouri's longest-serving death row inmate.^[62]^[64]^[65]
Richard Emery	Murdered his girlfriend and her family in their home.^[66]	2 years, 191 days
Charles Lee Mathenia	Murdered elderly sisters, 72-year-old Daisy Nash and 70-year-old Louanna Bailey in 1984.^[62]	40 years, 125 days	In 1994, he was declared mentally disabled.^[62]
Vincent McFadden	Fatally shot his girlfriend's sister, 18-year-old Leslie Addison.^[62]	20 years, 18 days	McFadden also committed another fatal shooting in 2002.^[62]
Roosevelt Pollard	Murdered Richard Alford, an Arkansas businessman.^[62]	39 years, 106 days	Pollard has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. In 1999, he was ruled incompetent.^[62]
Lance Shockley	Ambushed and murdered police officer Carl DeWayne Graham Jr.^[62]	15 years, 356 days
Craig Michael Wood	Kidnapped, raped, and murdered 10-year-old Hailey Owens.	7 years, 122 days

Name	Description of crime	Time on death row	Other
Michael Anthony Archuleta^[103]	Kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered 28-year-old Gordon Church on November 21, 1988.	35 years, 143 days	Lance Wood, his co-defendant, was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the murder. Has selected lethal injection as his method of execution.^[103]
Douglas Stewart Carter^[103]	Stabbed and shot 57-year-old Eva Olesen during a burglary of her Provo home on February 27, 1985.	39 years, 137 days	Has selected lethal injection as his method of execution.
Troy Kell^[103]	Stabbed fellow inmate, Lonnie Blackmon, 67 times on July 6, 1994.	28 years, 278 days	At the time, Kell was serving a life sentence in Nevada for the 1986 murder of 21-year-old James "Cotton" Kelly, who had been stalking 15-year-old Sandy Shaw, a long-time friend of Kell's. Has selected firing squad as his method of execution.^[105]
Ralph Leroy Menzies^[103]	Kidnapped and strangled gas station attendant, 26-year-old Maurine Hunsaker, in Kearns on February 23, 1986.	37 years, 51 days	Has selected firing squad as his method of execution.^[105]
Von Lester Taylor^[103]	Murdered 49-year-old Kaye Tiede and her mother, 76-year-old Beth Potts near Beaver Springs, Summit County.	33 years, 354 days	Edward Deli, his co-defendant, was sentenced to life in prison. They also shot Tiede's husband, who survived, and attempted to set him on fire. Later they kidnapped their two daughters. Has selected lethal injection as his method of execution.

Demographics

Number on death row by state

Ethnicity of defendants on death row

Gender of defendants on death row

Education

Mental illness

Time on death row

Later found innocent or exonerated

List of death row inmates by jurisdiction

Federal

Military

Alabama

American Samoa

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Florida

Georgia

Idaho

Indiana

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

North Carolina

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Wyoming

Jurisdictions without the death penalty

See also

References

External links