In the first half of 2013, six states car­ried out 18 exe­cu­tions. In the same peri­od last year, there were 23 exe­cu­tions in 8 states. The annu­al num­ber of exe­cu­tions has declined sig­nif­i­cant­ly from its peak in 1999, when 98 peo­ple were put to death. There were 43 exe­cu­tions in 2011 and 2012. Sixteen of this year’s exe­cu­tions (89%) have been in the South, with near­ly half in Texas (8). Eight of the defen­dants exe­cut­ed so far this year were black, and ten were white. Seventy-three per­cent (73%) of the vic­tims in cas­es result­ing in exe­cu­tions this year were white, even though gen­er­al­ly whites are vic­tims of mur­der in less than 50% of the cas­es. All of the exe­cu­tions in 2013 but one have been by lethal injec­tion. (Robert Gleason chose to be exe­cut­ed by elec­tro­cu­tion in Virginia in January.) All of the lethal injec­tions were car­ried out using pen­to­bar­bi­tal, either in a sin­gle or multiple-drug protocol. 

(DPIC, post­ed July 10, 2013). For more infor­ma­tion about lethal injec­tion drugs and pro­ce­dures, vis­it Lethal Injection. Visit our 2013 Execution List for infor­ma­tion about each exe­cu­tion, or see gen­er­al­ly Executions.

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