Subject: Capital Punishment, 1989

 
Capital Punishment 1989
 
 
        Eight states executed 16 criminal offenders last year, the
Bureau of Justice Staitstics announced today.  The Bureau is a
component of the Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of
Justice.  Since 1976, the year in which the U.S. Supreme Court
reinstated the death penalty, 13 states had executed 120 people as of
last December 31.
        The eight black males and eight white males executed during
1989 had spent an average of 7 years and 11 months awaiting execution,
according to the Bureau.
        During 1989, 250 state offenders were added to death row, 96
people were removed and 6 died while awaiting execution.
        Alabama and Texas each executed four offenders, Florida and
Nevada each executed two offenders and Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri
and Virginia each executed one offender.
        Other than a man held for the capital rape of a child in
Mississippi, all of these 2,250 state death row inmates being held as
of December 31 had been convicted of a murder.  Of these, 58.2 percent
were white, 40.1 percent were black, 1 percent was American Indian and
0.6 percent were Asian.  One hundred fifty-six (6.9 percent) of those
on death row were of Hispanic origin.  Twenty-five percent (1.1
percent) were women.
                Among those death row inmates for whom such
information was available, about 7 out of 10 had a prior felony
conviction, and 1 in 11 had a prior homicide conviction.  About 2 in 5
were on some type of criminal justice status at the time of their
capital offense.  Half of these were on parole, the rest were in
prison, had escaped from prison, were on probation or had criminal
charges pending against them.
        About 58 percent of the death row inmates were being held in
Southern states, 21 percent in the West, 15 percent in the Midwest
and just under 6 percent were in the Northeastern states of
Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
        As of the end of last year, the death penalty was legal in 36
states and in the federal system, and 34 of these states held
prisoners under a death sentence.
        Since 1930, the states have executed 3,946 offenders, and the
federal government has executed 33.
        Of the 120 offenders executed from 1977 through 1989, 72 were
electrocuted, 42 were given lethal injections, 5 were executed with
lethal gas and one was killed by a firing sqaud.
        Single copies  of the bulletin "Capital Punishiment 1989"
(NCJ-124545), as well as other Bureau of Justice Statistics
publications and data may be obtained  from the National Criminal
Justice Reference Service, Box 6000, Rockville, Maryland 20850.
The telephone number is 1-301-251-5500 or 1-800-732-3277.