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1992 Cap. Punishment 1 (1992)

handle is hein.death/cpshm1992 and id is 1 raw text is: U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics I1 Capital Punishment 1992 By Lawrence A. Greenfeld and James J. Stephan BJS Statisticians Thirteen States executed 31 prisoners during 1992. The number of persons executed was more than double the 14 executed in 1991, and it was the largest for any year since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. The prisoners executed during 1992 had been under sentence of death an average of 9 years and 6 months, about 2 months shorter than the average for inmates executed the previous year. During 1992, 265 prisoners under a sentence of death were received by State prison systems from the courts. In that year 117 persons had their death sentence overturned, 2 had their sentences com- muted, and 7 died while under a death sentence. At yearend 1992, 34 States and the Federal prison system held a total of 2,575 prisoners under sentence of death, 4.5% more than at yearend 1991. All prisoners under sentence of death on December 31, 1992, had been convicted of murder. The median time since the death sentence was imposed for the 2,575 prisoners was 5 years and 7 months. For those prisoners with a known criminal history, nearly 7 in 10 under sentence of death had a prior felony conviction; about 1 in 11 had a prior homicide conviction. Approximately 2 in 5 prisoners convicted of a capital crime had a criminal justice status when they committed the offense. Nearly half of these were on parole, while the others had charges pending, were on probation, were prison inmates or escapees, or had some other criminal justice status. Slightly more than 15% Status of the death penalty, December 31, 1992 Executions during 1992 Texas 12 Virginia 4 Alabama 2 Arkansas 2 Florida 2 Oklahoma 2 Arizona 1 California 1 Delaware 1 Missouri 1 North Carolina 1 Utah 1: Wyoming 1 Total 31 Figure 1 Number of prisoners under sentence of death Texas 344 California 332 Florida 312 Pennsylvania 153 Illinois 145 Alabama 124 Ohio 121 Oklahoma 120 Arizona 103 Georgia 101 29 other jurisdictions 720 Total 2,575 of persons sentenced to death between 1988 and 1992 had received two or more death sentences. The majority, 1,508 (58.6%), of those under sentence of death were white; 1,029 (40.0%) were black; 24 (0.9%) were American Indian; and 14 (0.5%) were Asian American. The 196 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death accounted for 7.6% of those inmates for whom Hispanic origin was known. Thirty- six (1.4%) of the persons under a death sentence were women. The median age of all inmates under a death sentence was 35 years and the median age at which they had been sentenced to death was 29 years. Approximately 56% of those under sen- tence of death were held by States in the South. Western States had an additional 22%; Midwestern States, 16%; and the Northeastern States of Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, 6%. Texas held the largest number of death row inmates (344), followed by California (332), Florida Jurisdictions without a death penalty Alaska District of Columbia Hawaii Iowa Kansas Maine Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota NewYork North Dakota Rhode Island Vermont West Virginia Wisconsin December 1993 For 63 years the Federal Government has published annual statistical descrip- tions of capital punishment. The capital punishment data series, which covers all persons sentenced to death since 1973, includes information about individuals (demographic characteristics and criminal history) and information about death sentences (time to execution and population movements). With this Bulletin we salute a Bureau of the Census employee who retires after 20 years of administering the capital punishment statistical series. We thank Arlene Rasmussen for her excellent work. We know that the State officials in corrections departments and attorneys general offices who have worked with Mrs. Rasmussen will, as we, miss her unfailing helpfulness and thoroughness. Lawrence A. Greenfeld Acting Director 0a

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