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1990 Cap. Punishment 1 (1990)

handle is hein.death/cpshm1990 and id is 1 raw text is: 

U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Bureau of Justice Statistics


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Capital Punishment 1990


        By Lawrence A. Greenfeld
             BJS Statistician

Of the 36 States and the Federal Govern-
ment with capital punishment laws, 11
executed 23 prisoners during 1990, bring-
ing the total number of executions to 143
since 1976, the year that the U.S. Supreme
Court reinstated the death penalty. Those
executed during 1990 had spent an aver-
age of 7 years and 11 months awaiting
execution.

During 1990, 244 prisoners under sentence
of death were received by State prisons
from the courts. During the year 101 per-
sons had their death sentences vacated or
commuted and 7 died in prison while still
under a death sentence. At yearend 34
States reported a total of 2,356 prisoners
under sentence of death, a 5% increase
over the number held at the end of 1989.
All prisoners under sentence of death on
December 31, 1990, had been convicted of
murder. The median time since sentencing
for the 2,356 prisoners was 4 years and 8
months.

About 7 in 10 offenders under sentence of
death for whom criminal-history data were
available had a prior felony conviction;
about I in 11 had a prior homicide convic-
tion. About 2 in 5 condemned prisoners
had a criminal justice status at the time
of the capital offense. Among those with a
criminal justice status, hall were on parole;
the rest were in prison, on escape from pri-
son, on probation, or had pending charges
when they committed the capital crime.

For the 821 inmates who had been sen-
tenced to death between 1988 and 1990,
those with two or more death sentences
comprised nearly 15% of all inmates:
15.3% of the whites, 13.4% of the blacks,
and 16.4% of the Hispanics.


Figure I


September 1991


This Bulletin marks the 61st annual
capital punishment report issued by the
Federal Government. Begun in 1930, this
statistical series has provided detailed
information on the characteristics of those
receiving a death sentence as well as
those persons executed. Computerized
data for all persons under a sentence of
death at any time between 1973 and
1990 are available to the public through


The majority, 1,375 (58.4%), of those under
sentence of death were white; 943 (40%)
were black; 24 (1%) were American Indian;
and 14 (0.6%) were Asian. Hispanic
prisoners (172) accounted for 7.3% of
those under a death sentence. Thirty-two


the BJS-sponsored National Archive of
Criminal Justice Data.

I would like to express appreciation to
the many persons in State and Federal
corrections agencies and offices of State
attorneys general who make this annual
report possible.

           Steven D. Dillingham, Ph.D
           Director


were female. The median age of inmates
sentenced to death was 34 years.

About 58% of those under sentence of
death were held by States in the South.
Western States held an additional 21%;


State executions In the United States and status of death penalty, 1990


[3 No death penalty
  as of 12131/90
Death penalty
in force:
0 Executions
EO No executions

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