NCJ Number
310309
Date Published
July 2025
Length
20 pages
Abstract
This report presents statistics on prisoners who were under sentence of death in 2023 and historical trends in executions. It details the jurisdictions that carried out executions in 2023 and includes advance counts of 2024 executions. It also presents the demographics (including sex, race and ethnicity, age, education, and marital status) and the criminal history of persons under sentence of death. BJS collects information about capital punishment each year through its National Prisoner Statistics program.
Highlights
In 2023:
- At yearend, a total of 26 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) held 2,192 prisoners under sentence of death, which was 73 (3%) fewer than at yearend 2022.
- Five states and FBOP received a total of 15 prisoners under sentence of death.
- Five states executed a total of 24 prisoners.
- Fourteen states and the FBOP removed a total of 64 prisoners from under sentence of death by means other than execution.
Date Published: July 1, 2025
Downloads
- Full Report (PDF 816KB)
- Data Tables (ZIP 20KB)
- Status of the Death Penalty Laws, Full Report (PDF 396KB)
- Supplemental Table 1 Capital Offenses by State 2023, (Excel file 18KB)
- Supplemental Table 2 Federal Capital Offenses 2023, (Excel file 16KB)
- Supplemental Table 3 Method of Execution by State 2023, (Excel file 17KB)
- Supplemental Table 4 Prisoners Executed Under Civil Authority in the United States 1977-2024, (CSV 8KB)