Differently from prior decades when presidents, prime ministers and dictators were seldom convicted, convictions for corruption have increased substantially since the early to 2000s across the world. Corruption is now the most common reason why former leaders receive a judicial conviction, having surpassed human rights abuses and the use of political violence. I use original data on the timing and the details of all convictions received by heads of government between 1946 and 2020 to test the conditions under which these convictions are more likely to occur. I assess diffferent explanations for when countries are more likely to convict their leaders, including the the role played by democratic consolidation, executive turnover and media pluralism. I complement these analyses by testing the determinants of judicial overturns and pardons.