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Watt Espy kept a series of index cards, grouped mainly by state, that records information about executions on American soil (colonies, states, territories) since the 1600s. Some cards contain lots of information, including name, place of execution, method, and details of the crime. Other cards have very little information aside from the fact that someone was executed. Sometimes there is not even a name—just "two slaves" or "pirate". There are additional categories for federal, military, and indigenous executions. There are two different card sizes; for the 3x5 inch cards, each state, territory, or other main division is identified with a manila tab. Subdivisions are marked with blue, unlined cards and are intended to mirror the arrangement of materials in Series #2 as closely as possible.

This series comprises the bulk of Watt Espy's primary and secondary research and is therefore the largest in the collection. Initially, approximately half of these documentation of execution records were arranged in an organized fashion alphabetically by state, or by federal, military, tribal or international categories and then alphabetically by an individual's name. The others were not arranged in any discernable scheme with a significant amount of materials kept as unorganized loose documents in boxes. Espy marked some files as "not written up," but it was ultimately unclear how these differed from other records. After careful review, the archivists decided to combine all of the documentation of executions together, divided the records into five subseries for executions conducted by all 50 states and the District of Columbia, federal executions, military executions, indigenous executions, and international executions, and subsequently arranged and inter-filed all the loose materials.

This series features administrative records of Watt Espy's efforts to chronicle every government-sanctioned execution in the United States as part of his Capital Punishment Research Project. Espy was the only full-time employee of this organization although he worked with paid graduate assistants while at the University of Alabama School of Law.

The Watt Espy subject files contain a variety of materials that supplement information in the other series without necessarily being directly related. Researchers will find background information on the history of capital punishment, death penalty statistics, and a few files on crime in general. There are folders devoted to crime and punishment in many individual states and territories, though not all of them are represented. The subject files also contain information on the various methods of execution employed across the country, mainly hanging, gassing, electrocution, and lethal injection. Additionally, there are death penalty-related topics such as physician participation, editorial pieces dealing with ethics of capital punishment, execution of prisoners with low IQs, background materials on the death penalty in early America, and a few assorted death penalty research projects that Espy followed. There are also assorted photos, many of which feature inmates and prisons. Images of identified and unidentified individuals executed are presumed to be the ones that filled the walls of Espy's house.

Watt Espy sent and received a significant amount of correspondence as part of his work on the Capital Punishment Research Project. The majority of correspondence, however, was not organized when it arrived at the University at Albany. The archivists elected to arrange it into two groups: files devoted to prominent or regular correspondents, and general correspondence. The former includes key academics (Michael Radelet, Hugo Bedeau, Margaret Vandiver), attorneys (The California Appellate Project, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Ohio Public Defender's Office), death penalty abolitionists and advocacy group executives (Rev. Joe Ingle, Sister Helen Prejean, Henry Schwarzschild), prominent prisoners and their families (Kerry Max Cook, Gary McGivern), and researchers who frequently corresponded with Espy. There were also a small number of files that Espy organized by subject, such as letters to and from prisoners, telephone inquiries, or correspondence relating to executions in a particular state, and the archivists retained this order and kept the files in the first group. The second group includes more infrequent correspondents, usually general inquiries sent to libraries or archives for records relating to individuals executed or for research requests.

This series contains materials about Watt Espy, including his speeches, published and unpublished writings, testimony, portraits, and news clips featuring Espy or quoting him. Of interest are files relating to his unpublished manuscript on juvenile executions and to a small signed portrait and autograph collection, mainly featuring members of the United States Congress. In addition, there are several personal items of Espy's: his typewriter, which he utilized well into the 1990s, his eyeglasses, his hat, and a special award from the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty from 1991.

This series consists of published copy, reprints, and drafts of articles about criminal justice and capital punishment by other authors which Watt Espy collected. Authors include scholars Michael Radelet, Hugo Bedeau, and Victor Streib. The archivists kept articles written by others and sent as part of correspondence to Espy with the original letters in Series 5: Correspondence.

Watt Espy amassed materials related to a variety of organizations advocating against capital punishment, for better prison conditions, for human rights, and for an improved and unbiased criminal justice system. The groups vary and may be secular or religious, national, statewide or local. Materials in this series include newsletters, execution alerts, appeals, meeting minutes, and brochures. In some instances, it is possible to determine that Espy was active within or supported a particular organization as his name appears in meeting minutes or related papers.

For over thirty years, Watt Espy assembled true crime, penitentiary, detective, western U.S. life and culture, and legal publications containing articles about capital crimes, executions, and criminal profiles. The publications date from the 1930s into the 21st Century. While some present straightforward non-fiction explanations of crimes, others feature more sensational accounts with lurid depictions. Of interest are 30 issues of the award-winning , a newsmagazine written by prisoners at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. This series also includes more than a half dozen Death Row annuals, featuring profiles and photographs of condemned prisoners, and a set of serial killer, mass murderer and gangster trading cards. Please note that Espy personally bound the publications in boxes 88-90, but did not include all issues for each year in the bound volume. Therefore some publications have both bound and unbound issues.