The Bureau of Justice Statistics recent­ly issued a new report, ​“Capital Punishment, 2012,” ana­lyz­ing the use of the death penal­ty in that year and reveal­ing over­all trends since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed. The report not­ed that 2012 was ​“the twelfth con­sec­u­tive year in which the num­ber of inmates under sen­tence of death decreased.” Among the sta­tis­tics not report­ed else­where, BJS not­ed that the time between sen­tenc­ing and exe­cu­tion in 2012 was 15.8 years. The aver­age time for all exe­cu­tions since 1976 was 11.3 years. The aver­age age of those on death row at the end of 2012 was 46. About 90% of those on death row went no fur­ther than high school in their edu­ca­tion. About one-third of those on death row had no pri­or felony convictions.

(Bureau of Justice Statistics, Capital Punishment, 2012 — Statistical Tables , May 2014). For more infor­ma­tion on the death penal­ty in 2012, see DPIC’s  Year End Report . See  Death Row , Sentencing and  Studies .

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