In the first half of 2012, eight states car­ried out 23 exe­cu­tions. In the same peri­od last year, there were 25 exe­cu­tions in 9 states. The annu­al num­ber of exe­cu­tions has declined sig­nif­i­cant­ly from its peak in 1999, when 98 peo­ple were exe­cut­ed. There were 43 exe­cu­tions in 2011. Sixteen of this year’s exe­cu­tions (70%) have been in the South, with near­ly half in just two states — Texas and Mississippi. Seventy-eight per­cent (78%) of cas­es result­ing in exe­cu­tions this year involved a mur­der with a white vic­tim, even though gen­er­al­ly whites are vic­tims of mur­der less than 50% of the time in the U.S. Inmates exe­cut­ed so far this year spent an aver­age of just over 18 years on death row pri­or to exe­cu­tion. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the aver­age time between sen­tenc­ing and exe­cu­tion for those exe­cut­ed in 2010 was 15 years, the longest peri­od for any sin­gle year. States have con­tin­ued to alter their exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols due to ongo­ing short­ages of cer­tain exe­cu­tion drugs. All exe­cu­tions in 2012 have been by lethal injec­tion. This year Arizona and Idaho joined Ohio and Washington in using a one-drug lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dure. All exe­cu­tions this year have used pen­to­bar­bi­tal, a drug not used in exe­cu­tions pri­or to December 2010.

(DPIC, post­ed July 3, 2012). For more infor­ma­tion about lethal injec­tion drugs and pro­ce­dures, vis­it DPIC’s page on Lethal Injection. Also see our State-by-state lethal injec­tion page. Visit our 2012 Execution List for infor­ma­tion about each exe­cu­tion, or see gen­er­al­ly Executions.

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