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July 23, 2019
"Capital Punishment, 2017: Selected Findings"
The title of this post is the title of this just released report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Though BJS is often the provided of the best available, in the capital punishment arena the Death Penalty Information Center tends to have more up-to-date and more detailed data on capital punishment. In any event, this new BJS report includes "statistics on the number of prisoners executed each year from 1977 through 2017, the number and race of prisoners under sentence of death at year-end 2017 by state, and the average elapsed time from sentence to execution by year from 1977 through 2017." And the short document sets out on its initial page these "highlights":
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At year-end 2017, a total of 32 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) held 2,703 prisoners under sentence of death, which was 94 (3%) less than at year-end 2016.
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In 2017, the number of prisoners held under sentence of death declined for the 17th consecutive year.
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Eighteen states held fewer prisoners under sentence of death at year-end 2017 than at year-end 2016, 3 states and the BOP held more prisoners, and 11 states held the same number.
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Three states accounted for 59% of the national decline in prisoners under sentence of death in 2017: Florida (down 33 prisoners), Delaware (down 12), and Texas (down 10).
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Thirty-four states and the federal government authorized the death penalty at year-end 2017; two of these states (New York and Wyoming) had no prisoners under sentence of death during the year.
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Prisoners executed in 2017 had been under sentence of death for an average of 20 years and 3 months, which was an increase of 3 years and 3 months from 2016 and an increase of 7 years and 6 months from 2007.
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Of the 23 prisoners executed in 2017, a total of 16 (more than two-thirds) had been sentenced in 1999.
July 23, 2019 at 12:15 PM | Permalink
Comments
Saying that New York "authorized" the death penalty is rather odd. The NY Court of Appeal declared NY's death statue unconstitutional in 2005. While technically still on the books is is unenforceable with no prospect of legislative action to change that.
Posted by: fuzzyone | Jul 23, 2019 6:02:03 PM
A couple of stats that I would find interesting -- but have never seen anywhere -- would be to breakdown the status of the death sentences further.
For example -- 1) cases on direct appeal; 2) cases on state collateral review; 3) cases on federal habeas review (maybe broken down by in district court or on appeal); 4) cases in which federal habeas review is completed. Similarly a breakdown by these categories of the component parts of the length between sentence and execution.
Posted by: tmm | Jul 25, 2019 11:43:58 AM
