Capital punishment statistics

Executions

In 2008, 37 inmates were executed, 5 fewer than in 2007.

In 2008, 37 persons in nine states were executed -- 18 in Texas; 4 in Virginia; 3 each in Georgia and South Carolina; 2 each in Florida, Mississippi, Ohio, and Oklahoma, and 1 in Kentucky.

Of persons executed in 2008:
-- 20 were white
-- 17 were black

All 37 inmates executed in 2008 were men.

Lethal injection was used in 36 executions in 2008; 1 execution was by electrocution.

Thirty-seven states and the federal government had capital statutes at yearend 2007.

Prisoners under sentence of death

The number of prisoners under sentence of death decreased for the seventh consecutive year in 2007.

At yearend 2007, 35 states and the federal prison system held 3,220 prisoners under sentence of death, 13 fewer than at yearend 2006.

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.

Of persons under sentence of death in 2007:

-- 1,804 were white

-- 1,345 were black

-- 26 were American Indian

-- 35 were Asian

-- 10 were of unknown race.

Fifty-six women were under a sentence of death at yearend 2007.

The 362 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death at yearend 2007 accounted for 13% of inmates with a known ethnicity.

Among inmates under sentence of death and with available criminal histories at yearend 2007:
-- nearly 2 in 3 had a prior felony conviction
-- 1 in 12 had a prior homicide conviction.

Among persons for whom arrest information was available, the average age at time of arrest was 29; nearly 1 in 9 inmates were age 19 or younger at the time of arrest.

At year end 2007, the youngest inmate under sentence of death was 19; the oldest was 92.

Source: Bureau of Justice Statisticswww.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/