Not yet included
These 31 collections of named deaths were built by other projects and newsrooms. I haven’t asked their makers yet, so their records aren’t on this site; I load a collection only with its maker’s permission or under an open license. Many are worth reading on their own. The sources this site does use are on the Methodology page.
National and multi-state
- Espy file, executions in the United States, 1608-2002, M. Watt Espy and John Ortiz Smykla, distributed by ICPSR: Executions from 1608 to 2002, many in states that publish no list before 1976.
- Execution database, Death Penalty Information Center: Executions since 1976, including states with no official list.
- Dying Inside, Reuters: 6,385 named deaths in county jails, 2008-2019.
- Monroe Work Today: About 8,400 lynchings, 1803-1964, among them people taken from jails and officers.
- Prison death records, Third City Project: Prison death files for several states, including Kentucky, Maine, Michigan and North Dakota.
- Deaths in custody records, The Marshall Project: Federal death-in-custody reports, and Missouri's prison death spreadsheet.
State lists from advocates and researchers
- Death database, The Alabama Solution: 1,377 deaths in Alabama prisons, 2019-2024.
- Louisiana Deaths Behind Bars, Incarceration Transparency: 1,973 deaths in Louisiana, 2002-2026.
- South Carolina Deaths Behind Bars, Incarceration Transparency: 777 deaths in South Carolina prisons, jails and youth detention, 2015-2021.
- Cause Unknown, Southern Poverty Law Center: 619 deaths in Mississippi jails and prisons, 2019-2026.
- The Dead: 2010-2021, Illinois Deaths in Custody Project: About 1,229 deaths in Illinois prisons.
- Quantez Burks Report, West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy: About 420 deaths in West Virginia jails and prisons, 2020-2026.
- Gone But Not Forgotten, Columbia Legal Services: 212 deaths in Washington jails, about 2005-2016.
- Stop the Deaths, ACLU of Kentucky: 22 deaths in the Louisville jail, 2021-2026.
Newsroom lists
- Death Sentence, The Indianapolis Star: More than 300 deaths in Indiana jails, 2010-2021.
- Booked and Buried, Oregon Public Broadcasting and KUOW: 306 deaths in Oregon and Washington jails, 2008-2018.
- Kentucky jail deaths, Lexington Herald-Leader: At least 234 deaths in Kentucky jails, 2020-2024.
- Kentucky jail deaths, Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting: At least 154 deaths in Kentucky jails, 2009-2015.
- Death Under Watch, MassLive: More than 140 deaths in Massachusetts prisons and jails, 2022-2025.
- Colorado jail deaths, The Denver Post: 117 deaths in Colorado jails, 2010-2016.
- Oklahoma County Jail deaths, The Oklahoman: 43 deaths at the Oklahoma County jail, 2020-2023.
- Cell by Cell, The Frontier: Deaths in Oklahoma jails, 2019 and 2020.
- Idaho jail deaths, InvestigateWest: 33 deaths in Idaho jails, 2019-2024.
- In-custody deaths, The Arizona Republic: 64 deaths in Arizona county jails and during arrests, 2017-2020.
- Deaths in Georgia prisons, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: About 172 homicides in Georgia prisons, 2020-2024.
Historical and university collections
- Inventory of Southern lynching victims, Stewart Tolnay and E. M. Beck: About 2,800 lynchings, 1882-1930.
- National lynching data, 1883-1941, Charles Seguin and David Rigby: 1,328 lynchings.
- Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive, Northeastern University's Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project: About 1,300 killings, 1930-1954, including killings in jails and by police.
- Lynching records, Tuskegee University Archives: 4,743 lynchings, 1882-1968.
- Lynching in Texas, Sam Houston State University: More than 600 lynchings in Texas, 1882-1945.
- Racial Terror: Lynching in Virginia, James Madison University: Lynchings in Virginia, 1866-1932.