Skip to content
Version 1.0.0
Sentencing Law and Policy
Part of the Law Professor Blogs Network

Bureau of Justice Statistics releases “Capital Punishment, 2021 – Statistical Tables”

By Douglas Berman

This morning the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics released this new report with notable national data on the administration of the death penalty in the United States through the end of 2021.  As I have noted in prior posts, though BJS is often the provider of the best available data on criminal justice administration, in the capital punishment arena the Death Penalty Information Center tends to have much more up-to-date and much more detailed data on capital punishment issues.  Still, this new BJS report provides notable and clear statistical snapshots about the death penalty in the United States, and the document sets out these initial “Key Findings”:

  • During 2021, the number of prisoners under sentence of death declined for the 21st consecutive year (figure 1) (See Status of the death penalty in 2021.)
  • A total of 16 prisoners were received under sentence of death in 2021, one more than was reported in 2020 (figure 2).
  • Twenty states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) removed a total of 84 prisoners from under sentence of death by means other than execution in 2021 (table 5).
  • Among jurisdictions with prisoners under sentence of death at yearend 2021, 19 states and the BOP reported a decrease in the number of prisoners held under sentence of death, 8 states reported no change, and no states reported an increase in the number of prisoners held under sentence of death. Four states held no prisoners under sentence of death during 2021.
  • The largest declines in the number of prisoners under sentence of death in 2021 occurred in California (down 14 prisoners) and Florida (down 11).
  • Almost all (98%) prisoners under sentence of death were male (table 6).
  • Among prisoners under sentence of death at yearend 2021 with a known ethnicity, about 16% were Hispanic.
  • At yearend 2021, 1,353 (57%) prisoners under sentence of death were white and 969 (41%) were black (figure 3).
  • At yearend 2021, 14 states held 50 female prisoners under sentence of death, one fewer than was reported in 2020 (table 7).
  • Eighteen states and the BOP held 336 Hispanic prisoners under sentence of death at yearend 2021 (table 8).
  • Among prisoners under sentence of death on December 31, 2021 with a known criminal history, twothirds (68%) had a prior felony conviction (table 9).
  • Prisoners under sentence of death on December 31, 2021 had been on death row for an average of 20.2 years (table 10).
  • Fifteen states and the BOP reported 45 prisoners whose convictions or sentences were vacated or overturned during 2021 (table 11).
  • Prisoners executed during 2021 had been on death row for an average of 19.4 years (table 12).
  • Between 1977 and yearend 2021, 34 states and the federal government executed 1,540 prisoners (table 13).
  • Between 1930, when the federal government began collecting annual execution statistics, and yearend 2021, a total of 5,393 persons were executed under civil authority (table 13, figure 4).