Capital Punishment, 2011 - Statistical Tables

• NCJ Number: 242185
• Author(s): Tracy L. Snell, Bureau of Justice Statistics
• Date Published: July 2013
• Publication Series: Capital Punishment
• Agencies: BJS
• Publication Type: Publication

Annotation

Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death on December 31, 2011, and persons executed in 2011.

Abstract

Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death on December 31, 2011, and persons executed in 2011. Preliminary data on executions by states during 2012 are included. Tables present state-by-state information on the movement of prisoners into and out of death sentence status during 2011, 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 2011, 35 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons held 3,082 inmates under sentence of death, which was 57 fewer than at yearend 2010.
• Of prisoners under sentence of death at yearend, 55% were white and 42% were black. The 387 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death accounted for 14% of inmates with a known ethnicity.
• In 2012, 9 states executed 43 inmates, which was the same number executed in 2011.