Sentencing Data

Overview

The num­ber of annu­al exe­cu­tions in the U.S. does not nec­es­sar­i­ly reflect the cur­rent pub­lic mood about the death penal­ty because exe­cu­tions typ­i­cal­ly occur fif­teen or more years after a death sen­tence has been hand­ed down. The num­ber of exe­cu­tions is also affect­ed by rever­sals on appeal and clemen­cies grant­ed. Death sen­tences, on the oth­er hand, are a time­ly mea­sure of pros­e­cu­tors’ deci­sions to seek death and juries’ unan­i­mous votes to impose it.

However, it is also dif­fi­cult to dis­cern pub­lic sen­ti­ment on the death penal­ty from the num­ber of death sen­tences. These sen­tences vary great­ly among the states, even when mea­sured on a per capi­ta basis. Moreover, the sen­tences are often clus­tered in par­tic­u­lar coun­ties with­in a state. Counties with the high­est num­ber of mur­ders do not always pro­duce the most death sen­tences. Nevertheless, it is rel­e­vant that the nation­al annu­al num­ber of death sen­tences has declined by over 80 per­cent dur­ing the past 25 years.

At Issue

One might expect that the num­ber of death sen­tences would be direct­ly pro­por­tion­al to the num­ber of mur­ders com­mit­ted in a juris­dic­tion, but that is not often the case. For exam­ple, the num­ber of death sen­tences in the U.S. has plum­met­ed since 2000 while the country’s mur­der rate has remained fair­ly sta­ble. The local use of the death penal­ty is strong­ly affect­ed by the views of the county’s dis­trict attor­ney, by racial fac­tors, and by the finan­cial resources avail­able in particular jurisdictions.

What DPIC Offers 

Statistics are avail­able on the num­ber of death sen­tences by juris­dic­tion and year. Recent data include racial infor­ma­tion on sen­tences. Death sen­tences can be eas­i­ly com­pared to the mur­der rates for var­i­ous juris­dic­tions and time periods.

For more infor­ma­tion about state-by-state sen­tenc­ing pro­ce­dures, see DPIC’s pages on Ring v. Arizona and Sentencing Alternatives.