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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.

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