Number of States Carrying Out Executions Declining

Despite the 3 exe­cu­tions car­ried out on June 17 and 18, exe­cu­tions and death sen­tences in the U.S. have steadi­ly declined since the 1990s. Moreover, the num­ber of states car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions has also dropped to a small minor­i­ty (see chart). Since exe­cu­tions peaked in 1999, the num­ber of states car­ry­ing out at least one exe­cu­tion in a year has fall­en by over 50%. In 1999, 20 states car­ried out exe­cu­tions. In 2012 and 2013, just 9 states did so. As of June 20, 2014, only 6 of the 32 states that have the death penal­ty have had an exe­cu­tion. More than half of the states in the coun­try (30) have not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in the past 5 years. Twenty-one (21) states have either abol­ished the death penal­ty or declared an offi­cial mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, with six states end­ing the death penal­ty in the last six years. The grow­ing geo­graph­i­cal iso­la­tion of the death penal­ty is also evi­dent on a coun­ty lev­el. A major­i­ty of exe­cu­tions since 1976 and a major­i­ty of all those on death row each came from just 2% of U.S. coun­ties; 85% of coun­ties have not had a sin­gle case result in an exe­cu­tion since 1976.

Just four states in 2014 (TX, FL, MO, and OK) have been respon­si­ble for over 90% of the executions.

(DPIC research, June 20, 2014). See Arbitrariness and DPIC’s 2013 Year End Report.