Death Penalty Statistics

Taken from:

U.S. Department of Justice · Office of Justice Programs
Bureau of Justice Statistics

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cp.htm

Executions

 
In 2005, 60 inmates were executed, 1 more than in 2004.

Executions, 1930-2005

•  In 2005, 60 persons in 16 States were executed -- 19 in Texas; 5 each in Indiana, Missouri, and North Carolina; 4 each in Ohio, Alabama, and Oklahoma; 3 each in Georgia, and South Carolina; 2 in California; and 1 each in Connecticut, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, and Mississippi.
  
   
•   Of persons executed in 2005:
  -- 41 were white
  -- 19 were black
  
   
•  Fifty-nine men and one woman were executed in 2005.
  
   
•  Lethal injection accounted for all of the executions.
  
   
•  Thirty-eight States and the Federal government in 2005 had capital statutes.
  
   

Prisoners under sentence of death

 
The number of prisoners under sentence of death decreased for the fourth consecutive year in 2004.

Prisoners on death row, 1953-2004

• At yearend 2004, 36 States and the Federal prison system held 3,314 prisoners under sentence of death, 63 fewer than at yearend 2003.

 
Since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, white inmates have made up more than half of the number under sentence of death.

Prisoners on death row by race, 1968-2004

• Of persons under sentence of death in 2004:
     -- 1,850 were white
     -- 1,390 were black
     -- 28 were American Indian
     -- 32 were Asian
     -- 14 were of unknown race.
  
   
• Fifty-two women were under a sentence of death at yearend 2004.
  
   
• The 367 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death at yearend 2004 accounted for 13% of inmates with a known ethnicity.
  
   
• Among inmates under sentence of death and with available criminal histories at yearend 2004:
  -- nearly 2 in 3 had a prior felony conviction
  -- about 1 in 12 had a prior homicide conviction.
  
   
• Among persons for whom arrest information was available, the average age at time of arrest was 28; 2% of inmates were age 17 or younger at the time of arrest.
  
   
• At yearend 2004, the youngest inmate under sentence of death was 18; the oldest was 89.