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The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) maintains statistics on persons executed under civil authority. Counts of individuals executed, by state, have been obtained annually since 1930. To provide the latest information on executions, BJS publishes preliminary counts of individuals executed on an ongoing basis. See Prisoners Executed for the most recently released data.
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Capital Punishment, 2018 - Statistical Tables This report presents information on persons under sentence of death on December 31, 2018 and persons executed in 2018. Preliminary data on executions by states during 2019 are included. | |
Full report (PDF 729K) | Data tables (Zip format 27K)
Part of the Capital Punishment Series |
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Prisoners Executed Prisoners executed under civil authority in the United States, by year, region, and jurisdiction, 1977-2019. | |
Data tables (Spreadsheet 8K) | Report: Capital Punishment, 2018 - Statistical Tables (HTML)
Part of the Capital Punishment Series |
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Capital Punishment, 2017: Selected Findings Provides statistics from the Bureau of Justice Statistics' annual data collection on capital punishment. | |
Full report (PDF 525K) | Data tables (Zip format 6K) | Prisoners Executed (Spreadsheet)
Part of the Capital Punishment Series |
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Capital Punishment, 2016 - Statistical Brief Presents statistics on persons under sentence of death at year-end 2016, including summary trends in the population, admissions to and releases from death row, the number of persons executed, and an advance count of executions in 2017. | |
Full report (PDF 931K) | Data tables (Spreadsheet 19K)
Part of the Capital Punishment Series |
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Capital Punishment, 2014-2015 - Statistical Brief Presents statistics on persons under sentence of death at yearend 2014 and 2015, including summary trends in the population, admissions to and releases from death row, and the number of persons executed. Preliminary findings on executions in 2016 are also included. Data are from BJS's National Prisoner Statistics (NPS-8) series. | |
Full report (PDF 393K) | ASCII file (7K) | Data tables (Spreadsheet 58K)
Part of the Capital Punishment Series |
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Capital Punishment in the United States, 2013 - Statistical Tables Presents information on persons under sentence of death on December 31, 2013, and persons executed in 2014. | |
Full report (PDF 1M) | ASCII file (34K) | Data tables (Spreadsheet 54K)
Part of the Capital Punishment Series |
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Capital Punishment, 2012 - Statistical Tables (Revised) Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death on December 31, 2012, and persons executed in 2012. | |
Full report (PDF 765KB) | ASCII file (14KB) | Data tables (Spreadsheet 28KB)
Part of the Capital Punishment Series |
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Capital Punishment, 2011 - Statistical Tables Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death on December 31, 2011, and persons executed in 2011. | |
Full report (PDF 1.1M) | ASCII file (14K) | Data tables (Spreadsheet 28K)
Part of the Capital Punishment Series |
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Capital Punishment, 2010 - Statistical Tables Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death on December 31, 2010, and persons executed in 2010. | |
Full report (PDF 800K) | ASCII file (12K) | Data tables (Spreadsheet 20K)
Part of the Capital Punishment Series |
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Capital Punishment, 2009 - Statistical Tables Presents characteristics of persons under sentence of death on December 31, 2009, and persons executed in 2009. | |
Full report (PDF 505K) | ASCII file (10K) | Data tables (Spreadsheet 24K)
Part of the Capital Punishment Series |
Terms & Definitions |
Capital punishment | Capital punishment refers to the process of sentencing convicted offenders to death for the most serious crimes (capital crimes) and carrying out that sentence. The specific offenses and circumstances that determine if a crime (usually murder) is eligible for a death sentence are defined by statute and are prescribed by Congress or any state legislature. |
Death row | Death row refers to incarcerated persons who have been sentenced to death and are awaiting execution (as in "inmates on death row"). Historically, death row was a slang term that referred to the area of a prison in which prisoners who were under a sentence of death were housed. Usage of the term continues despite the fact that many states do not maintain a separate unit or facility for condemned inmates. |