Area chart of the number of persons under sentence of death in the United States from 1954 to 2006.
The number of prisoners under sentence of death began at 147 in 1954 and increased to 147 in 1954. Then the number decreased to 125 in 1955, before increasing to 3,601 in 2000. After 2000, it decreased to 3,228 in 2006.