Number of US Executions Continues to Decline: BJS

Nearly 2,500 individuals were on death rows in state and federal prisons at the end of 2020, but the total number of executions in the U.S. has continued a 20-year decline through this year, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).

Five states and the federal government executed a total of 17 prisoners in 2020, with the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) accounting for more than half (10) of the executions—reflecting a decision by the outgoing administration of President Donald Trump to accelerate death penalty cases.

The decline continued through this year. According to preliminary figures, 11 prisoners were executed through Dec. 9—four fewer than the number executed by the same date in 2020.

The figures show that changing public attitudes and the growing number of states outlawing executions –Colorado became the 19^th state to abolish the death penalty in 2020—have combined to steadily reduce the use of capital punishment in the U.S.

There were 2,469 prisoners under sentence of death held in 28 state facilities and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) by Dec. 31, 2020. That was 94 (or 4 percent) fewer than at year-end 2019, BJS said.

In another indication of what appears to be the growing reluctance to employ the ultimate punishment, just 14 new individuals were sentenced to death in 2020, the smallest annual number reported since 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated capital punishment statutes in several states in Furman v. Georgia.

At the same time, 91 prisoners were taken off death row through commutations by governors or “means other than execution,” BJS said.

The largest declines in the number of prisoners under sentence of death in 2020 occurred in California (down 24 prisoners) and Pennsylvania (down 14). But California still held over 28 percent of death row inmates at the end of 2020. Florida (14 percent), and Texas (8 percent) came next.

The BOP held 51 prisoners under sentence of death at the end of 2020.

The majority of individuals (98 percent) on death row were male. About 56 percent were white and 41 percent were African American. About 15 percent of the condemned were Hispanic or mixed ethnic. So far in 2020, six of the executed inmates were Black and five were white.

One female federal prisoner was executed in 2021.

Compared to previous years, the 17 executions in 2020 show how much has changed. The number has been steadily dropping from as high point of 98 in 1999―the height of the “war on crime” fears—and 71 in 2002.

The death penalty has been enacted against 1,529 individuals since 1977, and 5,388 since 1930.

And in another key metric suggesting how much death penalty litigation has altered the landscape, prisoners under sentence of death by the end of 2020 had been on death row for an average of 19.4 years.

Prisoners executed during 2020 had been on death row for an average of 18.9 years.

In contrast, the prisoners executed in 1984 had been on death row an average six years.

Lethal injection was the most common mode of capital punishment in the 31 states where death penalty remains legal. But other methods of execution, such as hanging, electrocution and firing squad, are available in 15 states.

The condemned prisoner in those states is allowed to select the method of death.

All of the executions this year, as of Dec. 9, were by lethal injection.

The BJS report was written by Tracy L. Snell, Emily D. Buehler and Todd D. Minton.

To download the complete report and tables, please click here.