Tracy L. Snell, Bureau of Justice Statistics

May 15, 2014    NCJ 245789

Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death on December 31, 2012, and persons executed in 2012. Tables present state-by-state information on the movement of prisoners into and out of death sentence status during 2012, status of capital statutes, and methods of execution. Tables also summarize data on offender characteristics, such as sex, race, Hispanic origin, criminal history, and time between imposition of death sentence and execution. Data are from the National Prisoner Statistics (NPS-8) series.

Highlights:

• At yearend 2012, 35 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons held 3,033 inmates under sentence of death, which was 32 fewer than at yearend 2011.
• Of prisoners under sentence of death at yearend, 56% were white and 42% were black. The 384 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death accounted for 14% of inmates with a known ethnicity.
• In 2013, 9 states executed 39 inmates, which was four fewer than the number executed in 2012.

Part of the Capital Punishment Series

Full report (PDF 765KB)
ASCII file (14KB)
Data tables (Spreadsheet 28KB)

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