The Death Penalty Information Center is pleased to offer a new page illus­trat­ing the geog­ra­phy of the death penal­ty–Executions by County. This page shows the top 15 coun­ties in the U.S. mea­sured by the num­ber of exe­cu­tions since 1976 that emanat­ed from these coun­ties. As revealed on the map, a small num­ber of coun­ties are respon­si­ble for a dis­pro­por­tion­ate num­ber of exe­cu­tions. (Click on the map at left to enlarge.) The infor­ma­tion con­trasts with the coun­ties that have had the most mur­ders, which is also provided.

The top 15 coun­ties account­ed for 32% of the exe­cu­tions (402) in the U.S. since 1976, even though they rep­re­sent less than 1% of the total num­ber of coun­ties in the coun­try. Counties in Texas account­ed for 9 out of the top 15 juris­dic­tions by exe­cu­tions since 1976. The page also lists the top coun­ties by exe­cu­tion out­side of Texas. DPIC’s new­ly revised Execution Database enables you to sort exe­cu­tions by coun­ty and by state for further analysis.

(Executions by County, DPIC Posted, October 7, 2011). See Executions and Arbitrariness.

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