Capital Punishment, 1994

• NCJ Number: 158023
• Date Published: February 1996
• Agencies: BJS
• Publication Series: BJS Bulletins
• Publication Type: Bulletin

Annotation

Thirteen States executed 31 prisoners during 1994, seven fewer than in 1993.

Abstract

Prisoners executed during 1994 had been under sentence of death an average of 10 years and 2 months, about 9 months more than the average for inmates executed in 1993. At the end of 1994, 2,890 prisoners were under sentence of death, 5.9 percent more than at the end of 1993. Texas had the largest number of death row inmates, followed by California, Florida, and Pennsylvania. Of the 31 persons executed, 14 were in Texas. Of persons under sentence of death, 1,645 were white and 1,197 were black. The 224 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death accounted for 8.4 percent of inmates with a known ethnicity. Forty-one women were under sentence of death, about two in five inmates sentenced to death were on parole or probation, and two in three death row inmates had a prior felony conviction. During 1994, 26 State prison systems received 304 prisoners under sentence of death. Federal laws providing for the death penalty are noted in an appendix. 15 tables and 2 figures