Capital Punishment Statistics

Summary findings | BJS publications | Selected statistics

Summary findings

Executions

 
In 2003, 65 inmates were executed, 6 fewer than in 2002.

Executions, 1930-2003

•  In 2002, 71 persons in 13 States were executed -- 33 in Texas; 7 in Oklahoma, 6 in Missouri; 4 each in Georgia and Virginia, 3 each in Florida, South Carolina, and Ohio; 2 each in Alabama, Mississippi, and North Carolina; and 1 each in Louisiana and California.
  
  
•   Of persons executed in 2002:
  -- 53 were white
  -- 18 were black
  
  
•  Of those executed in 2002:
  -- 69 were men
  -- 2 were women
  
  
  
•  Lethal injection accounted for 70 of the executions; 1 was carried out by electrocution.
  
  
•  Thirty-eight States and the Federal government in 2002 had capital statutes.
  
  

Prisoners under sentence of death

 
The number of prisoners under sentence of death at yearend 2002 decreased for the second consecutive year.

Prisoners on death row, 1953-2002

• At yearend 2002, 37 States and the Federal prison system held 3,557 prisoners under sentence of death, 20 fewer than at yearend 2001. All had committed murder.

 
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.

Prisoners on death row by race, 1968-2002

• Of persons under sentence of death in 2001:
     -- 1,931 were white
     -- 1,554 were black
     -- 27 were American Indian
     -- 33 were Asian
     -- 12 were of unknown race.
  
  
• Fifty-one women were under a sentence of death.
  
  
• The 364 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death accounted for 12% of inmates with a known ethnicity.
  
  
• Among inmates under sentence of death and with available criminal histories:
  -- nearly 2 in 3 had a prior felony conviction
  -- about 1 in 12 had a prior homicide conviction.
  
  
• Among persons for whom arrest information was available, the average age at time of arrest was 28; 2% of inmates were age 17 or younger.
  
  
• At yearend, the youngest inmate under sentence of death was 18; the oldest was 87.
  
  

BJS Publications

This list is in order of the most recent publication first. Additional titles are listed on other topical pages and a comprehensive list is contained on the BJS publications page. To see a full abstract of a publication with links to electronic versions of the publication, click on the title below.

Capital Punishment 2002, 11/03. This annual BJS Bulletin presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death on December 31, 2002, and of persons executed in 2002. The report summarizes the movement of prisoners into and out of death sentence status during the year. NCJ 201848

Capital Punishment 2001, 12/02. NCJ 197020

Capital Punishment 2000, 12/01. NCJ 190598

Capital Punishment 1999, 12/00. NCJ 184795

Capital Punishment 1998, 12/99. NCJ 179012
Capital Punishment 1997, 12/98. NCJ 172881
Capital Punishment 1996, 12/97. NCJ 167031
Capital Punishment 1995, 12/96. NCJ 162043
Capital Punishment 1994, 02/96. NCJ 158023
Capital Punishment 1993, 12/94. NCJ 150042

Correctional Populations in the United States, 1997, 11/00. Presents data on the growing number of persons in the United States under some form of correctional supervision for 1997 and reports on the Survey of State and Federal inmates, 1997.
Full report NCJ 177613
Executive Summary NCJ 177614

After 1997, data are only available in electronic formats. See Correctional Populations in the United States - Statistical tables 9/02.

Correctional Populations in the United States, 1996, 4/99. Includes the survey of Inmates in local jails.
Full report NCJ 170013
Executive Summary NCJ 171684

Correctional Populations in the United States, 1995, 5/97. Summarizes the 1995 Census of State and Federal Adult Correction Facilities.
Full report NCJ 163916
Executive Summary NCJ 163917

Correctional Populations in the United States, 1994, 7/96. Includes data on military corrections.
Full report NCJ 160091
Executive Summary NCJ 161559
Correctional Populations in the United States, 1993, 10/95. Includes State-by-State data about local jails.
Full report NCJ 156241
Executive Summary NCJ 156675

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Selected statistics

Correctional Populations in the United States - Statistical tables
in spreadsheet and portable document format files. Subjects include:

• Jail inmates
• Probation
• Prisoners
• Parole
• Capital Punishment
• U.S. military corrections

1998 data are currently available, 9/02

• Prisoners executed under civil authority in the United States, by year, Federal, State-by-state, and region, 1977-2002 Spreadsheet (22K)
• Executions, 1930-2003
• Prisoners under sentence of death, 1953-2003
• Prisoners under sentence of death by race, 1968-2003

Bureau of Justice Statistics
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Page last revised on February 9, 2004