Lawrence A. Greenfeld, Bureau of Justice Statistics

September 15, 1991    NCJ 131648

Those executed during 1990 had spent an average of 7 years and 11 months awaiting execution. In addition, during 1990, 244 prisoners under sentence of death were received by State prisons from the courts. Furthermore, during the year 101 persons had their death sentences vacated or commuted and seven died in prison while still under a death sentence. At the end of the year, 34 States reported a total of 2,356 prisoners under sentence of death, a 5-percent increase from the number held in 1989. All these prisoners had been convicted of murder. Their median time since sentencing was 4 years and 8 months. About 70 percent of those for whom criminal-history data were available had a prior felony conviction, with about one in 11 having a prior homicide conviction. Tables, map, and notes

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