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1980 Cap. Punishment 1 (1980)

handle is hein.death/cpshm1980 and id is 1 raw text is: U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics Capital Punishment 1980 Events in 1980 appeared to signal the end of an era of major developments in capital punishment that began roughly 20 years ago. As the year drew to a close there were more persons awaiting execution than at any time since a national count has been kept. Thirty-six States had a death penalty statute in force, 30 States were holding prisoners on death row, and 25 States had imposed the death penalty during the year.I A total of 714 persons were under sentence of death in the United States at the end of 1980, 136 more than a year earlier.2 During the year 187 1 National statistics on executions have been collected since 1930; national statistics on persons under sentence of death, since 1953. Data in this report are preliminary and subject to revision. zThe 1980 figure excludes one inmate held under Armed Forces jurisdiction in accordance with capital provisions of the Uniform Code of military justice. July 1981 The capital punishment series is one of the oldest in the National Prisoner Statistics program. It began with a count of executions in 1930. In 1953 the program was expanded to include a count of persons under sentence of death at yearend and, in 1960, of those entering and leaving death row during the year. Since it was taken over by the Law Enforce- ment Assistance Administration in 1971 and the Bureau of Justice Statistics late in 1979, the series has expanded to include social and demographic characteristics of persons were sentenced to death and 48 persons were relieved of the death penalty. There were no executions in Number of persons on death row, yearend 1968-80 Number. 800 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 death-row prisoners, methods of removal from death row, and de- velopments in capital punishment law. These data are collected annually for the Bureau of Justice Statistics by the U.S.Census Bureau from the departments of corrections in the 50 States and the District of Columbia. The cooperation of State officials, whose generous assistance and unfailing patience make the National Prisoner Statistics program possible, is gratefully acknowledged. Benjamin H. Renshaw III Acting Director 1980, although one execution has already occurred this year and will be included in the capital punishment count for 1981. The number of persons relieved of the death penalty in 1980 was the smallest in more than 10 years. Most cases in which prisoners were relieved of the death penalty during the decade occurred because the statute under which they were sentenced was subse- quently found to be unconstitutional. The small number of such cases in 1980 indicates that most States are now sentencing under statutes specifically written to comply with Supreme Court standards of constitutionality, marking the end of an era that began roughly 20 years ago. During the 1930's persons who received the death penalty did not spend many years on death row. In the mid-1930's close to 200 executions occurred annually. Consequently, the death row population was relatively stable from year to year. By the 1950's the number executed annually had ___// 38 69 70 71 72 o L 196

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