From: Deborah Kay Barreau <barreau@wam.umd.edu>
Subject: Almost 2,500 prisoners await execution (BJS Press Release)
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 22:21:29 GMT

ADVANCE FOR RELEASE AT 5 P.M. EDT                           
BJS  FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1992                            
202-307-0784

            ALMOST 2,500 PRISONERS AWAIT EXECUTION

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Eight states executed 14 prisoners
last year, increasing to 157 the total number of executions in
the U.S. between 1976, when the Supreme Court reaffirmed the
death penalty's constitutionality, and December 31, 1991,
according to a report published today by the Bureau of Justice
Statistics (BJS).  
     "Since 1977, 4,101 prisoners have been under a death
sentence for varying lengths of time," noted BJS Director
Steven D. Dillingham.  "Of these men and women, the 157 who
have been executed account for 3.8 percent of the total. 
Whites, blacks and Hispanics had almost identical
probabilities of being executed--4 percent for white prisoners
and 3.8 percent for both black and Hispanic inmates."
     BJS, a Department of Justice component in the Office of
Justice Programs, reported that those executed during 1991 had
spent an average of nine years and eight months awaiting
execution, about one year and nine months longer on the
average than the 23 people executed during 1990.

     As of last December 31, 34 states and the federal system
had 2,482 prisoners awaiting execution--a 5.8 percent increase
over the number held at the end of 1990.  The most were in
Texas (340), Florida (311), California (301), Pennsylvania
(137), Illinois (132), Oklahoma (125), Alabama (119), Ohio
(111) and Georgia (101).  
     About 70 percent of the offenders on death row for whom
criminal history information was available had a prior felony
conviction, and about one in 12 had a prior homicide
conviction.  About 40 percent of those sentenced to death were
involved with the criminal justice system at the time they
committed their new capital offense.  Half of these were on
parole.  The rest were in prison, had escaped from prison,
were on probation or had other charges pending against them. 

     Almost 15 percent of those sentenced to death from 1988
through 1991 had received two or more death sentences.
     The death row inmates were 59 percent white, 39.6 percent
black, 0.9 percent American Indian and 0.5 percent Asian. 
Hispanic prisoners accounted for 7.4 percent of those
sentenced to capital punishment.  Thirty-four of the people
awaiting execution (1.4 percent) were women.
     Half of all death row prisoners were 34 years old or
older.  About 58 percent were held by Southern states. 
Western states held 21 percent, Midwestern states, 15 percent
and the 

                              

Northeastern states almost 6 percent.  One prisoner was in 
federal custody.
     During 1991 these states executed the following number of
prisoners:

                    Texas . . . . . . . . .  5
                    Florida . . . . . . . .  2
                    Virginia. . . . . . . .  2
                    Georgia . . . . . . . .  1
                    Louisiana.  . . . . . .  1
                    Missouri. . . . . . . .  1
                    North Carolina  . . . .  1
                    South Carolina. . . . .  1

     Of the 157 executions in 16 states from 1977 through
1991, 59.9 percent were white (including one white female),
and 40.1 percent were black.  There were 10 Hispanic male
prisoners executed, of whom nine were white and one black.
     Of those executed since 1977, 61 were by lethal
injection, 90 were electrocuted, five received lethal gas and
one execution was by a firing squad. 
     The jurisdictions without a death penalty as of the end
of last year were Alaska, the District of Columbia, Hawaii,
Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New
York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and
Wisconsin.
     Single copies of the BJS bulletin, "Capital Punishment
1991" NCJ-136946) and other BJS information and publications
may be obtained from the National Criminal Justice Reference
Service, Box 6000, Rockville, Maryland 20850. The telephone
number is 1-301-251-5500.  The toll-free number from places
other than Maryland and metropolitan Washington, D.C., is 1-
800-732-3277.   Data from the tables and graphs used in the
BJS report can be made available to news organizations in
spreadsheet files on 5," and 3+" diskettes by calling (202)
307-0784.  The statistics are also available from the National
Archive of Criminal Justice Data at the University of Michigan
by calling 1-800-999-0950.
                           # # #  
92-75
After hours contact: Stu Smith 301-983-9354

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