Executions, Death Sentences Decline Again

For the fourth year in a row, the number of people given death sentences and the number actually executed in the United States has declined again leaving 3,315 state and federal death row inmates at the end of 2004, 63 fewer than 2003.

The Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics report shows that 3,601 were on death row at the end of 2000; 3,577 at the end of 2001; 3,562 in 2002 and 3,378 at the end of 2003 and only 3,315 at the end of 2004.

According to the BJS report, among the 38 states with capital punishment laws as of December 2004, California held the most death row inmates (637), followed by Texas (446), Florida (364) and Pennsylvania (222). The federal Bureau of Prisons held 33 inmates. Twelve states and the District of Columbia do not authorize capital punishment.

During 2004, 12 states executed 59 prisoners, six fewer than in 2003.

The report also revealed:

• All 59 persons executed during 2004 were men. Thirty nine were white (three of whom were Hispanic), 19 were black and one was Asian. Fifty eight were given lethal injection and one was electrocuted.

• During 2004, Texas executed 23 inmates; Ohio seven; Oklahoma six; Virginia five; North and South Carolina four each; Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Nevada two each and Arkansas and Maryland one each.

• Of those awaiting execution on December 31, 2004, 56 percent were white, 42 percent black, and 2 percent of other races.

• The 367 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death were 13 percent of all prisoners for whom the ethnicity was known.

• Fifty two women were under a death sentence at the end of 2004, five more than the year before.

• Preliminary data for 2005 show that 13 states executed 49 inmates from January 1 through November 9; all were given lethal injections. Texas executed 17, followed by Indiana and Missouri with five, and Alabama and Oklahoma with four each.

• From January 1, 1977, through December 31, 2004, 32 states and the federal government executed 944 prisoners.

• Of the 7,187 people under sentence of death between 1977 and 2004, 13 percent had been executed, 4 percent died by causes other than execution, 37 percent were removed from death row for various reasons and 46 percent were still on death row as of last December 31.

The report, "Capital Punishment, 2004" was written by BJS statisticians Thomas P. Bonczar and Tracy L. Snell.

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics

More Information:
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