Capital Punishment, 2022 – Statistical Tables

• NCJ Number: 309498
• Author(s): Tracy L. Snell
• Date Published: December 2024
• Length: 20 pages
• Agencies: BJS
• Publication Type: Publication; Statistics

Abstract

This report presents statistics on persons who were under sentence of death in 2022 and historical trends in executions. It describes which jurisdictions carried out an execution in 2022 and includes advance counts of 2023 executions. The report also presents demographics (including sex, race and ethnicity, age, education, and marital status) and the criminal history of persons under sentence of death. A summary of state and federal death penalty laws and lists of federal and state capital offenses accompany the report as separate attachments. BJS collects information about capital punishment each year through the National Prisoner Statistics program.

Highlights:

• At yearend 2022, a total of 26 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons held 2,270 prisoners under sentence of death, which was 86 (4%) fewer than at yearend 2021.
• On December 31, 2022, 30 states and the federal government had death penalty statutes. In December 2022, the governor of Oregon commuted the death sentences of 17 inmates, leaving no inmates under sentence of death in Oregon at yearend.
• Six states (Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, Missouri, Alabama, and Mississippi) executed a total of 18 prisoners in 2022. All executed prisoners were male.