This report presents statistics on persons who were under sentence of death in 2020, state and federal death penalty laws in 2020, and historical trends in executions. It describes which jurisdictions had the death penalty and which carried out an execution in 2020 in addition to their authorized methods of execution. It also includes demographic (sex, race and ethnicity, age, and education) and criminal history characteristics of prisoners under sentence of death. An advance count of executions in 2021 is also provided.?
Findings are based on BJS?s National Prisoner Statistics program, which collects capital punishment data from state departments of corrections, state attorneys general offices, the District of Columbia?s U.S. attorney?s office, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Capital Punishment, 2020 ? Statistical Tables (NCJ 302729) was written by BJS Statistician Tracy L. Snell. The report, related documents, and additional information about BJS?s statistical publications and programs are available on the BJS website at bjs.ojp.gov.?
The Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice is the principal federal agency responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating reliable statistics on crime and criminal justice in the United States. Doris J. James is the acting director.
For more information on BJS's publications, data collections, data analysis tools, and funding opportunities,?visit?BJS online.
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