It's not easy to check: PACER does not provide that sort of functionality and the courts have not bothered to record death of defendant as a data field. You're

It's not easy to check: PACER does not provide that sort of functionality and the courts have not bothered to record death of defendant as a data field. You're welcome to attempt this project by hand; it will probably take you the rest of your natural life. PACER was designed and implemented in the days when AOL and Compuserve were the Internet. It doesn't have an API.