September 21, 2011 6:02 PM

U.S. executions, by the numbers

By
Joshua Norman
Protesters for Troy Davis walk through downtown Atlanta before gathering on the steps of the Georgia Capitol building on September 20, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Protesters for Troy Davis walk through downtown Atlanta before gathering on the steps of the Georgia Capitol building on September 20, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Getty Images)

(CBS News) 

Note: This story was last updated on Sept. 21, 2011

Troy Davis, the Georgia death row inmate set to die Wednesday night, had maintained his innocence since the beginning in a case that relied almost entirely on witness testimony. Several witnesses have recanted their testimonies fingering Davis as the man who pulled the trigger in the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail.

Still, prosecutors and the victim's son remained convinced Davis is guilty. It is difficult to determine how many prisoners have been put to death in the U.S. based solely on witness testimony, but the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) wrote in its most recent report (PDF) that there have been 1,267 government-sanctioned executions since 1976, so odds are Davis' conviction and sentence is not unique.

Davis, if executed, would become the 35th person this year whose capital punishment sentence was carried through, according to DPIC. The state of Georgia has executed 3 others so far this year, and 51 total since 1976. That is the 7th most of any state since 1976.

Currently, 34 states have the death penalty, as well as the U.S. government and the military. Texas is by far the state with the most executions annually, as well as historically, according to DPIC statistics. The Lone Star state has executed 10 prisoners so far this year, and 474 since 1976. The next on the list is Virginia, with 109 executions since the 70s, but only 1 so far this year.

California and Florida have the largest numbers of death row inmates, with 721 and 398 respectively, according to the DPIC. New Hampshire and Wyoming have one death row inmate each. Wyoming's Dale Wayne Eaton has been on death row since 2004 after his conviction of first-degree premeditated murder, three counts of felony murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery, and first degree sexual assault in the 1988 killing of 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell, The Billings Gazette reports.

The DPIC reports: "There were 62 women on death row as of April 1, 2010. This constitutes 1.9 percent of the total death row population. 12 women have been executed since 1976."

Of those executed since 1976, the DPIC reports that 56 percent were white, 35 percent were Black, 7 percent were Hispanic, and 2 percent were listed as "other." The Census Bureau estimates that the U.S. population overall in 2010 was 72 percent white, almost 13 percent black and 16 percent Hispanic.

Since 1976, 1093 death row inmates have died by lethal injection, 157 by electrocution, 11 in a gas chamber, 3 by hanging and 3 by firing squad, the DPIC reports. In general, holding a prisoner on death row and executing them is believed to be much more expensive than holding a prisoner in maximum security for several decades.

The DPIC reports that, in Texas, "a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years."

Internationally, 23 countries carried out executions and 67 imposed death sentences in 2010, Amnesty International reports. An estimated 139 countries have completely abolished the death penalty.

China has by far the most number of executions annually with estimates running in the thousands, although the exact number is hard to pinpoint because of the country's self-reporting mechanisms, Amnesty reports. Number two on that list is Iran, which executed more than 380 prisoners in 2009. The U.S. comes in fifth on that list, behind Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

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  • Joshua Norman

    Joshua Norman is an associate editor at CBSNews.com.

Add a Comment See all 13 Comments
by malibu1369 September 22, 2011 6:55 PM EDT
@mecanik-2009 and @tsigili. It is sad that you think it morally right for the state to murder its own citizens. Morality is cultural and it's a sad comment on the USA when we think murder is moral. It is definitely not ethical, and ethics is independent of culture and morality. That is why nearly every democratic country in the world has eliminated the death penalty.

As for your last statement tsigili, wronged victims and the wrongly convicted are both major sources of concern and both are as important as each other. Or do you think it is ok for the state to murder an innocent person because someone murdered a resident of the state?
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by TWONPOO September 28, 2011 11:53 AM EDT
sounds to me like the u.s are oppressing their own people. someone please invade the usa, and or overthrow its govt.
by malibu1369 September 22, 2011 6:54 PM EDT
@mecanik-2009 and @tsigili. It is sad that you think it morally right for the state to murder its own citizens. Morality is cultural and it's a sad comment on the USA when we think murder is moral. It is definitely not ethical, and ethics is independent of culture and morality. That is why nearly every democratic country in the world has eliminated the death penalty.

As for your last statement tsigili, wronged victims and the wrongly convicted are both major sources of concern and both are as important as each other. Or do you think it is ok for the state to murder an innocent person because someone murdered a resident of the state?
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by mjlewis6 September 22, 2011 10:05 AM EDT
Rather than be judges of what should be done or what was done, each of us is a potential victim not only of someone else who is in need, whether driven by drugs, hatred or pathological drives....but by the system riven with politics, biases, and a mislabeled desire for revenge that is packaged as justice.

Put youself in the shoes of any prisoner, guilty or presumed innocent and learn just what your "constitutional rights' are truly composed of. There is no greater lesson to be learned than to be in the chair of the defendant...and see the directed animosity of not only strangers...but state officials who can twist any fact, suppress any evidence in your favor, and cajole, bargain or outright bribe witnesses with other considerations in order to introduce some scintilla of fact to insure a jury convicts. It is the State's burden to prove guilt beyond a resonable doubt....Will you bet your life on it?

At the end of a long struggle, even a man must face the Socratic truth: do I really want to live in such a society of hypocrites?

There is no justice....and the only peace we can find in life...is an endless search without HIS example two thousand years ago...THREE separate trials, secular and religious and political. Despite doubt, truth and judicial proceeding...it comes down to politics deciding whether one lives....or dies.
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by Dgunner September 22, 2011 9:36 AM EDT
IMO if the victims relatives or closet to the victim in relation is not willing to push the plunger or pull the switch then the convicted or condemned should automatically get life with out parole.The able bodied unemployed in this country who are starving and are not trying to get in the military should be put to work building prisons from ground up and in return recieve food stamps and and a roof over thier head . Nothing fancy just simple creature comforts.I also think that for evry person who wishes to pay a executioner should give to that person half of evrything they own or do the deed themselves or shut up and go back into your self righteous hole.
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by ahrats September 22, 2011 6:05 AM EDT
Ok everyone who against Capital Punishment, Well let these people (killers) live with you or be your next door neighbor, for those who work and can not be at home 24/7 do you want them around when you are not there? who need jails let's just keep killer on the streets.
If the latest death row inmate is innocent, then who killed the police officer? Name the someone did it, oh too late.
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by malibu1369 September 22, 2011 6:45 PM EDT
Actually, if I could have my choice, "Killers", those convicted of any degree of murder/manslaughter, are the safest people to live around. Statistically, they have the absolutely lowest rate of recidivism and have a statistically 0% rate of committing another violent crime. So be careful what you say because your lack of knowledge in this area just may come back to bite you.
by sharra_r September 22, 2011 12:15 AM EDT
Aside from the fact that executions cost MUCH more than warehousing, there is something morally and ethically reprehensible about demanding that a state or federal employee commit a killing of any type. One of those, "I am forbidden to kill, both legally and morally but I PAY you, so you MUST!" How totally selfish is that, to put that on another human's soul!
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by mecanik-2009 September 21, 2011 11:03 PM EDT
The morality of the death penalty is not really the question here. I for one think the death penalty is morally correct. I just think our government is too incompetent and morally corrupt to administrate it. That's why I'm against the death penalty in the United States.
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by chicubs3 September 21, 2011 8:57 PM EDT
There is so many murderers in prison whether on death row or life in prison that if they were in any other country would have been dead by now. The only thing I can figure is there is so much money for lawyers and judges in the appeal system that are bilking millions off of taxpayers. There is no reason that murderers are kept alive past 1 year. Taxpayers are paying for the lawyers, judges and the scum that live in these prisons. So many of those inmates also tear up so much property in prison costing taxpayers more money. I know because of working over 30 years prison system. Why they continue to let these kind of people hurt innocent victims is beyond me. I remember back in the day when you could leave your doors unlocked and open and no one would come in. NOT now. It is because of our laws and letting guys that are GUILTY get a reprieve and a chance, maybe such as this thug, to get out and hurt someone else.
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by XCAlt September 22, 2011 4:27 PM EDT
Actually, in MOST other countries, they wouldn't ever be executed.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Death_Penalty_World_Map.svg

See all those blue spots? Nations where the death penalty no longer exists.
by pingpaul September 21, 2011 8:00 PM EDT
It should be noted that Lawrence Russell Brewer, one of the men convicted of dragging James Byrd to death behind a pickup near Jasper, Texas, has been executed.
John William King, also convicted of the murder, remains on the Texas Death Row.
Byrd's body was decapitated during the crime. The headless body was placed in front of a black church.
Reply to this comment
by tsigili September 21, 2011 7:34 PM EDT
There is absolutely no justification for eliminating the death penalty. On the contrary, it makes no sense for tax payers to foot the bill to keep those convicted of capital crimes, to house and feed them for the rest of their lives, in prison.

Those who worry about the innocent being wrongly convicted, should be as concerned about the victims, who were wronged......but they aren't.
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