Tracy L. Snell, Bureau of Justice Statistics

May 4, 2017    NCJ 250638

Presents statistics on persons under sentence of death at yearend 2014 and 2015, including summary trends in the population, admissions to and releases from death row, and the number of persons executed. Preliminary findings on executions in 2016 are also included. Data are from BJS's National Prisoner Statistics (NPS-8) series.

Highlights:

2014

• At yearend, 34 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) held 2,942 inmates under sentence of death, 41 fewer than at yearend 2013.
• Eighteen states and BOP received 69 inmates under sentence of death.
• Seven states executed 35 inmates.

2015

• At yearend, 33 states and the BOP held 2,881 inmates under sentence of death, 61 fewer than at yearend 2014.
• This was the fifteenth consecutive year in which the number of inmates under sentence of death decreased.
• Six states executed 28 inmates.

Part of the Capital Punishment Series

Full report (PDF 393K)
ASCII file (7K)
Data tables (Spreadsheet 58K)

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