Statistics

For all you visual learners out there, we included these statistics to give you a better idea of how the rates of execution have increased or decreased over time.

 
Executions, 1930- 2000

At yearend 2000, 37 States and the Federal prison system held 3,593 prisoners under sentence of death, 1.5% more than at yearend 1999. All had committed murder.

In 2000, 85 persons in 14 States were executed
    -- 40 in Texas; 11 in Oklahoma, 8 in Viirginia, 
6 in Florida, 5 in Missouri, 4 in Alabama, 3 in Arizona, 
2 in Arkansas, and 1 each in Delaware, Louisiana, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and California.                    

Of persons executed in 2000:
    -- 49 were white
    -- 35 were black
    -- 1 was American Indian<

Of those executed in 2000:
    -- 83 were men
    -- 2 were women

Eighty of the executions in 2000 were carried out by 
lethal injection and 5 by electrocution. 

Thirty-eight States and the Federal government in 
2000 had capital statutes.

 Prisoners on death row by race, 1968-2000 

Since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, white inmates have made up the majority of those under sentence of death.
 

Of persons under sentence of death in 2000:
                       -- 1,990 were white
                       -- 1,535 were black
                       -- 29 were American Indian
                       -- 27 were Asian
                       -- 12 were of unknown race. 
 

The 339 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death accounted for 11% of inmates with a known ethnicity. 


All information courtesy of 

Bureau of Justice Statistics on Capital Punishment

Some other facts from yearend 2000:

    -- The number of prisoners on death roww has been increasing

    -- Fifty-four women were under a sentennce of death.

Among inmates under sentence of death and with available criminal histories:
    -- nearly 2 in 3 had a prior felony connviction
    -- about 1 in 12 had a prior homicide cconviction.

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 yearend, the youngest inmate under sentence of death was 18; the oldest was 85.
 
 
 

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