Death Penalty Data

This webpage aims to bring together all of the datasets examined in the death penalty literature - or at least all of those to which researchers have willingly given me access.  You should be able to use these data to replicate the existing estimates in these papers.  The goal is simply to make it easier for interested scholars to examine the data and do research in this area.

The datasets posted here are by permission of the authors of the relevant studies, and it is them, not me, who deserve your thanks.  Equally, the data are not always well documented; please do not ask me for details of underlying data sources, but rather attempt to figure it out from the accompanying papers most of which document sources in the paper or data appendix.  I have posted the data here in the form that the original authors provided them to me in.  (For many of these papers, Donohue and Wolfers provide alternative code to replicate the original results.)

And if you have your own datasets that you would like me to share here, please send me an email, and I will willingly add relevant data.

Donohue and Wolfers (2005)

Uses and Abuses of Empirical Evidence in the Death Penalty Debate
by John J. Donohue and Justin Wolfers
Stanford Law Review (2005) 58:791-846

Brief Description of the Data

• National time series of execution and homicide rates in the U.S.
  - Stata 9 data, Figure 1 do file
• Figure 2: National time series of homicide rates in Canada and the U.S.
  - Excel spreadsheet and Figure 2
• Homicide rates by state, 1960-2000 and coding of death penalty statutes
  - Stata 9 data, Table 1 do file, Figure 3 do file
      - Includes attempt to replicate Dezbakhsh and Shepherd (2006) Tables 5 and 6
• State-level homicide and execution data plus controls, 1934-2000
  - Stata 9 data, Table 2 do file, Table 3 do file, Figure 4 do file, Table 5 do file, Figure 8 do file
      - Includes attempt to replicate Dezbakhsh and Shepherd (2006) Table 8
  - Table 4 do file
      - Includes replication of Katz, Levitt and Shustorovich (2003) Table 2
• State-level homicide and execution data plus controls, 1977-1997
  - Data are available from Naci Mocan
  - Table 6 do file
       - Includes replication of Mocan and Gittings (2003) Table 2
• Monthly homicide data in Illinois and the US (seasonally-adjusted) 1994-2003
  - Stata 9 data, Figure 5 do file
      - Includes replication and re-analysis of Cloninger and Marchesini (2005)
• Monthly homicide data in Texas and the US (seasonally-adjusted) 1989-1998
  - Stata 9 data, Figure 6 do file
     - Includes replication and re-analysis of Cloninger and Marchesini (2001)
• County-level homicide and execution data plus controls, 1977-1996
  - Stata 9 data, Table 7 do file, Table 8 do file, Table 9 do file, Figure 7 do file
      - Includes replication and re-analysis of Dezbakhsh, Rubin and Shepherd (2003)
• Meta-analysis of published results
  - Stata 9 data, Figure 9 do file, Figure 10 do file

All of the Donohue and Wolfers data in one zip file.
(Mocan and Gittings' data are excluded, but are available here)

Cloninger and Marchesini (2005)
Execution Moratoriums, Commutations and Deterrence: The Case of Illinois
by Dale O. Cloninger and Roberto Marchesini
Forthcoming, Applied Economics

Monthly homicide data for Illinois and other states, 1994-2003. Data file here.

Zimmerman (2004)
State Executions, Deterrence, and the Incidence of Murder
by Paul R. Zimmerman
Journal of Applied Economics, 2004, VII(I), 163-193.

State-level data 1978-1997.  Data file here.
Note: Paul Zimmerman has asked me to take down these data, so the above link is now broken.

Dezbakhsh, Rubin and Shepherd (2003)
Does Capital Punishment Have a Deterrent Effect?  New Evidence from Postmoratorium Panel Data
by Hashem Dezhbakhsh, Paul H. Rubin and Joanna M. Shepherd
American Law and Economics Review, 2003, 5(2), 344-376.

County-level data 1977-1996.  Data file here.

Katz, Levitt and Shustorovich (2003)
Prison Conditions, Capital Punishment, and Deterrence
by Lawrence Katz, Steven D. Levitt and Ellen Shustorovich
American Law and Economics Review, 2003, 5(2), 318-343.

State-level data 1933-1990.  Data file here.

Mocan and Gittings (2003)
Getting off Death Row: Commuted Sentences and the Deterrent Effect of Capital Punishment
by H. Naci Mocan and R. Kaj Gittings
Journal of Law and Economics, 2003, XLVI, 453-478.

State-level data 1977-1997.  Data file here.  [Note: Hosted off-site.]

Cloninger and Marchesini (2001)

Execution and deterrence: a quasi-controlled group experiment
by Dale O. Cloninger and Roberto Marchesini
Applied Economics, 2001, 33, 569-576

Monthly homicide data for Illinois and the U.S., 1989-1997.  Data file here.

Other relevant datasets

• Espy and Smykla (2004)
  Executions in the United States, 1608-2002: The Espy File
• Capital punishment: BJS publications; Death row data