Executions Overview

Executions by Race and Race of Victim

“In 82% of the stud­ies [reviewed], race of the vic­tim was found to influ­ence the like­li­hood of being charged with cap­i­tal mur­der or receiv­ing the death penal­ty, i.e., those who mur­dered whites were found more like­ly to be sen­tenced to death than those who murdered blacks.” 

– United States General Accounting Office, Death Penalty Sentencing, February 1990

Race of Defendants Executed in the U.S. Since 1976

NOTE: The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment counts some cat­e­gories, such as Hispanics, as an eth­nic group rather than a race. DPI refers to all groups as races because the sources for much of our infor­ma­tion use these categories.

Race of Victims Since 1976

NOTE: Number of Victims refers to the vic­tims in the under­ly­ing mur­der in cas­es where an exe­cu­tion has occurred since the restora­tion of the death penal­ty in 1976. There are more vic­tims than exe­cu­tions because some cas­es involve more than one victim.