Search About Newsletters Donate

Death Row

A Dungeons and Dragons book titled “Dungeon Master’s Guide” sits atop a pile of scattered maps and drawings. Many of the hand-drawn maps are sketched on graph paper. Some pages contain details in color, and others are drawn in black-and-white.
Feature August 31
When Wizards and Orcs Came to Death Row
For men awaiting execution in Texas, illicit games of Dungeons & Dragons became a lifeline.
By Keri Blakinger
Feature March 2
The Mercy Workers
For three decades, a little-known group of “mitigation specialists” has helped save death-penalty defendants by documenting their childhood traumas. A rare look inside one case.
By Maurice Chammah
Analysis December 22, 2022
Some of Our Best Work of 2022
From coverage of prison violence and abuses in a juvenile lockup to investigations by our new Cleveland team, our reporters told stories that made a difference.
By Terri Troncale
An illustration shows a side-profile silhouette of a long-haired man against a yellow and green gradient background. The man looks toward a window that displays nature and has prairie animals coming out of it.
Life Inside March 18, 2022
California’s Longest Serving Death-Row Prisoner On Pain, Survival and Native Identity
As the Monache and Cherokee 63-year-old awaits a new hearing for a 1978 murder he denies committing, Douglas Ray Stankewitz shares the cultural tools and memories he depends on to stay alive.
By Douglas Ray Stankewitz as told to Richard Arlin Walker
Terence Andrus, wearing a white prison uniform, looks through glass. A phone hangs on either side of the divider.
Death Sentences February 1, 2022
They Went to Prison as Kids. Now They’re on Death Row.
Fight clubs, solitary confinement and neglect make juveniles angrier and more violent.
By Keri Blakinger and Maurice Chammah
Known to his listeners as “Megamind,” Ramy Hozaifeh is the voice — and the driving force — behind a new radio station run from inside one of the most notorious prisons in Texas.
Death Sentences December 20, 2021
The Prisoner-Run Radio Station That’s Reaching Men on Death Row
They can’t go to classes or prison jobs, and they don’t have tablets or televisions. But they do have radios.
By Keri Blakinger
John Henry Ramirez, who is incarcerated on death row at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit, in Livingston, Texas, on Sept. 1, 2021.
Death Sentences September 7, 2021
From Last Meals to Last Words, What Can Death Row Prisoners Request Before They Die?
As a Texas man sues for his pastor to touch him during his execution, a guide to rights for the condemned.
By Keri Blakinger and Maurice Chammah
Gerald Pizzuto Jr., circa 2000.
Death Sentences May 6, 2021
They Are Terminally Ill. States Want To Execute Them Anyway.
“I don’t understand trying to kill somebody who is already dying,” says the sister of Idaho death-row prisoner Gerald Pizzuto.
By Maurice Chammah and Keri Blakinger
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.
By Maurice Chammah and Keri Blakinger
Billie Allen, center, with his friends on federal death row who were executed, from left: Orlando Hall, Corey Johnson, Dustin Higgs, Brandon Bernard and Christopher Andre Vialva.
Life Inside April 1, 2021
Living With Survivor’s Guilt on Federal Death Row
I escaped Donald Trump’s last-minute execution spree. Now I have to find a way to keep fighting.
By Billie J. Allen
About
People
Jobs
Sitemap
Funders