19
28
35
39
43
43
46
52
37
42
53
60
59
65
71
66
85
98
68
74
45
56
31
38
31
14
!
!
DEATH PENALTY INFORMATION CENTER
Facts about the Death Penalty
1015 18th St. NW, Suite 704
Washington, DC 20036
www.deathpenaltyinfo.org
dpic@deathpenaltyinfo.org
@DPInfoCtr
facebook.com/DeathPenaltyInfo
Updated: December 7, 2016
NUMBER OF EXECUTIONS
SINCE 1976: 1441
23
16
11
25
18
18
21
5
2
1
0
2
0
1
0
‘76
‘77
‘78
‘79
‘80
‘81
‘82
‘83
‘84
‘85
‘86
‘87
‘88
‘89
‘90
‘91
‘92
‘93
‘94
‘95
‘96
‘97
‘98
‘99
‘00
‘01
‘02
‘03
‘04
‘05
‘06
‘07
‘08
‘09
‘10
‘11
‘12
‘13
‘14
'15
'16
• Other: 23
generally are white.
Virginia
Wyoming
U.S. Gov’t
(19)
Alaska
Hawaii
Illinois
Iowa
Maine
Maryland
Michigan
Minnesota
New York
Vermont
Wisconsin
Other
1.6%
White
55.7%
Hispanic
8.3%
Black
34.4%
Other
2%
White
76%
Hispanic
7%
Black
15%
• White: 803
• Black: 496
Over 75% of the murder victims in cases
• Hispanic: 119
resulting in an execution were white, even
though nationally only 50% of murder victims
RACE OF DEFENDANTS EXECUTED
RACE OF VICTIMS IN DEATH PENALTY CASES
DEATH PENALTY STATES (31)
Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
North Carolina
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Washington
U.S. Military
NON-DEATH PENALTY STATES
Connecticut
Delaware**
Massachusetts
New Jersey
New Mexico**
North Dak
ota
Rhode Island
West Virginia
District of Columbia
**Inmates remain on death row.
RECENT STUDIES ON RACE
•
Jurors in Washington state are three times more likely to recommend a death sentence for a black
defendant than for a white defendant in a similar case. (Prof. K. Beckett, Univ. of Washington, 2014).
Persons Executed for Interracial Murders
282
20
• In Louisiana, the odds of a death sentence were 97% higher for those whose victim was white than for
those whose victim was black. (Pierce & Radelet, Louisiana Law Review, 2011).
• A study in California found that those who killed whites were over 3 times more likely to be sentenced
to death than those who killed blacks and over 4 times more likely than those who killed Latinos.
(Pierce & Radelet, Santa Clara Law Review, 2005).
•
A comprehensive study of the death penalty in North Carolina found that the odds of receiving a death
sentence rose by 3.5 times among those defendants whose victims wer
e white. (Prof. Jack Boger and
Dr. Isaac Unah, University of North Carolina, 2001).
White Def./!
Black Def./!
• In 96% of states where there have been reviews of race and the death penalty, there was a pattern of
Black Victim
White Victim
either race-of-victim or race-of-defendant discrimination, or both. (Prof. Baldus report to the ABA, 1998).
FL
IL
TX
LA
OK
AZ
NC
OH
AL
GA
PA
MO
MS
NM
CA
MA
TN
IN
SC
ID
KY
MD
NE
NV
VA
WA
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
3
3
3
4
4
4
6
6
6
9
9
9
10
10
13
20
26
• Since 1973, more than 150 people have been released from death row
with evidence of their innocence. (Staff Report, House Judiciary
Subcommittee on Civil & Constitutional Rights, 1993, with updates from
DPIC).
• From 1973-1999, there was an average of 3 exonerations per year. From
2000-2011, there was an average of 5 exonerations per year.
INNOCENCE
Death Row Exonerations
By State Total: 156
Other!
3%
Hispanic!
13%
Black!
42%
White!
42%
Race of Death Row Inmates and Death Row Inmates by State Source: NAACP Legal Defense Fund, “Death Row USA” !
(July 1, 2016). When added, the total number of death row inmates by state is slightly higher than the given total because some
prisoners are sentenced to death in more than one state.
California
741
Mississippi
48
Idaho
9
Florida
396
Oklahoma
47
Utah
Texas
254
S. Carolina
43
Washington
Alabama
194
Arkansas
36
Virginia
Pennsylvania
175
Kentucky
34
U.S. Military
N. Carolina
155
Oregon
34
Colorado
Ohio
142
Missouri
26
S. Dakota
Arizona
126
Delaware
18
Montana
Nevada
80
Indiana
12
New Mexico
Louisiana
77
Kansas
10
N. Hampshire
Tennessee
69
Nebraska
10
Wyoming
Georgia
68
TOTAL: 2,905
U.S. Gov’t
62
DEATH ROW INMATES BY STATE: July 1, 2016
DEATH ROW INMATES BY RACE
9
9
7
6
3
3
2
2
1
1
EXECUTIONS BY REGION*
State
Tot
2015
2016
State
Tot
2015
2016
State
Tot
2015
2016
TX
538
13
7
AR
27
0
0
PA
3
0
0
OK
112
1
0
MS
21
0
0
KY
3
0
0
VA
111
1
0
IN
20
0
0
MT
3
0
0
FL
92
2
1
DE
16
0
0
US GOVT
3
0
0
MO
87
6
1
CA
13
0
0
ID
3
0
0
GA
69
5
9
IL
12
0
0
SD
3
0
0
AL
57
0
1
NV
12
0
0
OR
2
0
0
OH
53
0
0
UT
7
0
0
NM
1
0
0
NC
43
0
0
TN
6
0
0
CO
1
0
0
SC
43
0
0
MD
5
0
0
WY
1
0
0
AZ
37
0
0
WA
5
0
0
CT
1
0
0
LA
28
0
0
NE
3
0
0
EXECUTIONS BY STATE SINCE 1976
South
Midwest
West
Northeast
TX & OK
650
4
85
178
1174
*Federal executions are listed in the region in
which the crime was committed.
DEATH SENTENCING
The number of death sentences per year has dropped dramatically since 1999.
Year
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Sentences
295
279
223
153
166
151
138
140
123
126
120
118
114
85
82
83
73
49
MENTAL DISABILITIES
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics: “Capital Punishment, 2013.” 2014 figure from DPIC research.
•
Intellectual Disabilities: In 2002, the Supreme Court held in Atkins v. Virginia that it is unconstitutional to execute defendants with 'mental retardation.'
•
Mental Illness: The American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, and the American Bar
Association have endorsed resolutions calling for an exemption of the severely mentally ill.
• A report by the National Research Council, titled Deterrence and the Death Penalty, stated that
studies claiming that the death penalty has a deterrent effect on murder rates are
“fundamentally flawed” and should not be used when making policy decisions (2012).
• Consistent with previous years, the 2014 FBI Uniform Crime Report showed that the South
had the highest murder rate. The South accounts for over 80% of executions. The
Yes
5%
No Opinion
7%
No
88%
• According to a survey of the former and present
presidents of the country’s top academic
criminological societies, 88% of these experts
rejected the notion that the death penalty acts as a
deterrent to murder. (Radelet & Lacock, 2009)
EXECUTIONS SINCE 1976 BY METHOD USED
DETERRENCE
Do executions lower homicide rates?
Northeast, which has less than 1% of all
executions, had lowest murder rate.
5.6
4.2
5.5
5.3
6.7
Murder Rates per 100,000 (2014)
South
Midwest
West
Northeast
Nat’l
1266
Lethal Injection
158
Electrocution
11
Gas Chamber
3
Hanging
3
Firing Squad
JUVENILES
34 states plus the US government use
lethal injection as their primary method.
Some states utilizing lethal injection have
other methods available as backups.
Though New Mexico and Connecticut
have abolished the death penalty, their
laws were not retroactive, leaving
prisoners on the states’ death rows and
their lethal injection protocols intact.
• In 2005, the Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons struck down the death
penalty for juveniles. 22 defendants had been executed for crimes
committed as juveniles since 1976.
WOMEN
•
There were 56 women on death row as of Dec. 31, 2014. This constitutes
less than 2% of the total death row population. (NAACP Legal Defense
Fund, Jan. 1, 2015). 16 women have been executed since 1976.
FINANCIAL FACTS ABOUT THE DEATH PENALTY
•
Defense costs for death penalty trials in Kansas averaged about $400,000 per case, compared to $100,000 per case when the death penalty
was not sought. (Kansas Judicial Council, 2014).
•
A new study in California revealed that the cost of the death penalty in the state has been over $4 billion since 1978. Study considered pre-
trial and trial costs, costs of automatic appeals and state habeas corpus petitions, costs of federal habeas corpus appeals, and costs of
incarcer
ation on death row. (Alarcon & Mitchell, 2011).
•
In Maryland, an average death penalty case resulting in a death sentence costs approximately $3 million. The eventual costs to Maryland
taxpayers for cases pursued 1978-1999 will be $186 million. F
ive executions have resulted. (Urban Institute, 2008).
•
Enforcing the death penalty costs Florida $51 million a year above what it would cost to punish all first-degree murderers with life in prison
without parole.
Based on the 44 executions Florida had carried out since 1976, that amounts to a cost of $24 million for each execution.
(Palm Beach Post, January 4, 2000).
•
The most comprehensive study in the country found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million per execution over the costs
of sentencing mur
derers to life imprisonment. The majority of those costs occur at the trial level. (Duke University, May 1993).
•
In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the
highest security level for 40 years.
(Dallas Morning News, March 8, 1992).
PUBLIC OPINON AND THE DEATH PENALTY
Support for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
What Interferes with Effective Law Enforcement?
Percent Ranking Item as One of Top Two or Three
Lack of law enforcement resource
Drug/Alcohol abuse
Family problems/child abuse
Lack of programs for mentally ill
Crowded courts
Ineffective prosecution
Too many guns
Gangs
Insufficient use of the death penalty
• A 2009 poll commissioned by DPIC found police chiefs ranked the death
penalty last among ways to reduce violent crime. The police chiefs also
considered the death penalty the least efficient use of taxpayers’ money.
2
3
5
6
7
12
14
20
20
The Death Penalty Information Center has available more extensive reports on a variety of issues, including:
• “The Death Penalty in 2015: Year-End Report” (December 2015)
• “Battle Scars: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty”
Life with parole
9%
Life without parole
13%
Death penalty
33%
No opinion
6%
Life without parole plus restitution
39%
• A 2010 poll by Lake Research Partners found that a clear
majority of voters (61%) would choose a punishment other
than the death penalty for murder.
• “The 2% Death Penalty: How a Minority of Counties Produce Most Death Cases at Enormous Costs to All” (October 2013)
• "The Death Penalty in 2013: Year-End Report" (December 2013)
• "Struck By Lightning: The Continuing Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty 35 Years After Its Reinstatement in 1976" (June 2011)
• “Smart on Crime: Reconsidering the Death Penalty in a Time of Economic Crisis” (October 2009)
• “A Crisis of Confidence: Americans' Doubts About the Death Penalty” (2007)
• “Blind Justice: Juries Deciding Life and Death with Only Half the Truth” (2005)
• “Innocence and the Crisis in the American Death Penalty” (2004)
• “International Perspectives on the Death Penalty: A Costly Isolation for the U.S.” (1999)
• “The Death Penalty in Black & White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides” (1998)
• “Innocence and the Death Penalty: The Increasing Danger of Executing the Innocent” (1997)
