Tracy L. Snell

December 3, 2009    NCJ 228662

Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death on December 31, 2008, and persons executed in 2008. Preliminary data on executions by states during 2009 are included. Tables present state-by-state information on the movement of prisoners into and out of death sentence status during 2008, status of capital statutes, and methods of execution. Numerical tables also summarize data on offender characteristics such as gender, race, Hispanic origin, age at time of arrest for capital offense, legal status at time of capital offense, and time between imposition of death sentence and execution. Data are from the National Prisoner Statistics (NPS-8) series.

Highlights include the following:

• In 2008, 37 inmates 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.
• 36 executions were by lethal injection; 1 by electrocution.
• During 2009, 11 states executed 52 inmates, 15 more than the number executed during 2008

Part of the Capital Punishment Series

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