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1982 Cap. Punishment 1 (1982)

handle is hein.death/cpshm1982 and id is 1 raw text is: U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics Capital Punishment 1982 Two persons were executed during 19.82, one each in Virginia and Texas, bringing to six the total executed since 1967. All six took place after the last major U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the death penalty in 1976.1 By year's end, the number of inmates under sen- tence of death stood at 1,050, the 2 largest ever recorded in the Nation.2 The number of persons sentenced to death during the year was 264-higher than in any other year except 1975- while departures from death row by means other than execution fell to 68, one of the smallest totals in recent history. The large number of persons on death row at the end of 1982 reflected both an increase in the number of death sentences handed down over the years and lengthened stays because of long appeals. The 264 persons sentenced to death in 1982 represented an increase of 8% over the number condemned in 1981. Twenty-eight of the 37 States with death penalty laws sentenced inmates during 1982. The largest number of sentences were handed down in California and Florida, etch with 39 persons, followed by Texas with 28 and Alabama with 20. Ohio and Wyoming were the only States that sentenced persons during 1982 but not 1981. A new death penalty law was passed in Ohio during 1981. Since 1976, the number of removals from death row has dropped each year with the exception of 1980, when 42 persons were relieved of the death sentence in Alabama as the result of a 1A seventh person was executed in Alabama on April 22, 1983. AU of the seven were men. 2The 1982 figures exclude 6 men with military death sentences held under Armed Forces jurisdiction. 3The figures for Texas and Georgia on the table on page 2 exclude condemned inmates still held in county jails but will be revised to include them as they enter the State correctional system. July 1983 The capital punishment series began in 1930 with an annual report of the number of execu- tions in each State. Several significant additions to the series have been made over the years. Beginning in 1953, statistics were published on the death-row popu- lation at yearend. In subsequent years, the series was expanded to include the number and character- istics of persons sentenced to death each year including age, sex, race, marital status, and education. Statistics were also published on the offender's pre- vious homicide or other felony convictions and on whether the offender was in prison, on proba- tion, or on parole at the time of the capital offense. The frequen- major court decision. The relatioqship between removals and additions has varied from year to year, but by 1982 about four persons received the death sentence for every one relieved of it. During 1982, only 16 States had departures from death row, 5 fewer than in 1981. The largest number of removals occurred in Texas (24) and Florida (13); each of the remaining 13 States granted 6 or fewer removals (departures prompted by legislative or judicial action). About half of the 64 persons who left death row by means other than death had both their convictions and their sentences vacated, while the next largest group, 31%, had only their sentences vacated. Six deaths occurred among the condemned popula- tion, including two executions, three murders, and one suicide. The total cy of judicial and legislative action on capital punishment in the 1970's led to the annual col- lection of information on the legal status of the death penalty in each State. More recently, the Bureau of Justice Statistics began collecting information on those States that subject each death sentence to automatic appeal and on the minimum age at which an offender may be sentenced to death. The complete series of capital punishment statistics is published in an annual report that may be obtained by request from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Steven R. Schlesinger Director number of persons who have died on death row since 1972 is 32, including the six who were executed. The 1,050 persons awaiting the death penalty at yearend 1982 was almost double the record high on death row at the time of Furman v. G , 408 U.S. 238, in 1972, and 2-12 times the number on death row at the end of 1976, the year from which most of the current laws date. More than two- thirds of the 1982 total were held in Southern States. Only one Northeast- ern State, Pennsylvania, held prisoners on death row. The largest numbers were under sentence in Florida (189), Texas (148), California (120), and Georgia (100). In all, 31 of the 37 States with the death penalty held at least one condemned prisoner at yearend. About 40% of those under sentence 14

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