The highest number of death sentences in the world in 2024 was recorded in China, with at least 1,000 cases registered, although the actual number is likely to be significantly higher. Egypt followed behind with 365 death sentences. Iran was the country that executed the highest number of people that year, although the figures are estimated to be higher than those of Iran.

In 2023, ** death row inmates were executed in the United States. During the previous year, there were ** executions in the country. However, this is a significant decrease from 2000, when ** death row inmates were executed.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE UNITED STATES, 1973-2018 provides annual data on prisoners under a sentence of death, as well as those who had their sentences commuted or vacated and prisoners who were executed. This study examines basic sociodemographic classifications including age, sex, race and ethnicity, marital status at time of imprisonment, level of education, and state and region of incarceration. Criminal history information includes prior felony convictions and prior convictions for criminal homicide and the legal status at the time of the capital offense. Additional information is provided on those inmates removed from death row by yearend 2018. The dataset consists of one part which contains 9,583 cases. The file provides information on inmates whose death sentences were removed in addition to information on those inmates who were executed. The file also gives information about inmates who received a second death sentence by yearend 2018 as well as inmates who were already on death row.

As of August 8, three executions were carried out by Alabama and two executions were carried out by Missouri in 2024. Another two executions were carried out in Oklahoma in the same year. Death penalty Since 2015, Texas has been the state most likely to perform the most executions in the United States. However, the U.S. government and military also enforce death penalties. Since 1976, 1,392 executions in the country have been conducted through lethal injection. The United States is one of the countries around the world still using capital punishment. It is estimated that China executed a thousand prisoners in 2022, while Iran executed approximately 314 people . Some 55 percent of U.S. citizens stated that they thought capital punishment was morally acceptable . About 35 percent of death penalty supporters reasoned that this form of punishment was “an eye for an eye” due to the crime, while 14 percent of supporters believed that the death penalty could save taxpayers money due to costs associated with prisons. In general, most states require some form of first-degree murder as the crime that is punishable by death. However, 40 percent of denouncers of the death penalty stated that it was wrong to take a life, while 17 percent reasoned that the persons may be wrongly convicted. Support for capital punishment reached a peak in 1991 at 76 percent of the population agreeing.

Investigator(s): Bureau of Justice Statistics These data collections provide annual data on prisoners under a sentence of death and on those whose offense sentences were commuted or vacated during the years indicated. Information is supplied for basic sociodemographic characteristics such as age, sex, race, ethnicity, marital status at time of imprisonment, level of education, and state of incarceration. Criminal history data include prior felony convictions for criminal homicide and legal status at the time of the capital offense. Additional information is available for inmates removed from death row by yearend of the last year indicated and for inmates who were executed. The universe is all inmates on death row since 1972 in the United States. The inmate identification numbers were assigned by the Bureau of the Census and have no purpose outside these data collections.Years Produced: Annually (latest release contains all years)NACJD has produced a resource guide on the Capital Punishment in the United States Series.

In 2024, China executed at least 1,000 people. Iran and Saudi Arabia followed, with 972 and 345 executions, respectively. Some countries intentionally conceal their death penalty practices, while others do not maintain accurate records on the number of death sentences and executions carried out. For instance, executions were known to have been committed in for instance Afghanistan and North Korea, but it was impossible for the source to find the exact figures.

This data collection effort was undertaken to analyze the outcomes of capital appeals in the United States between 1973 and 1995 and as a means of assessing the reliability of death penalty verdicts (also referred to herein as "capital judgments" or "death penalty judgments") imposed under modern death-sentencing procedures. Those procedures have been adopted since the decision in Furman v. Georgia in 1972. The United States Supreme Court's ruling in that case invalidated all then-existing death penalty laws, determining that the death penalty was applied in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner and violated Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Data provided in this collection include state characteristics and the outcomes of review of death verdicts by state and year at the state direct appeal, state post-conviction, federal habeas corpus, and all three stages of review (Part 1). Data were compiled from published and unpublished official and archived sources. Also provided in this collection are state and county characteristics and the outcome of review of death verdicts by county, state, and year at the state direct appeal, state post-conviction, federal habeas corpus, and all three stages of review (Part 2). After designing a systematic method for identifying official court decisions in capital appeals and state and federal post-conviction proceedings (no official or unofficial lists of those decisions existed prior to this study), the authors created three databases original to this study using information reported in those decisions. The first of the three original databases assembled as part of this project was the Direct Appeal Database (DADB) (Part 3). This database contains information on the timing and outcome of decisions on state direct appeals of capital verdicts imposed in all years during the 1973-1995 study period in which the relevant state had a valid post-Furman capital statute. The appeals in this database include all those that were identified as having been finally decided during the 1973 to 1995 period (sometimes called "the study period"). The second original database, State Post-Conviction Database (SPCDB) (Part 4), contains a list of capital verdicts that were imposed during the years between 1973 and 2000 when the relevant state had a valid post-Furman capital statute and that were finally reversed on state post-conviction review between 1973 and April 2000. The third original database, Habeas Corpus Database (HCDB) (Part 5), contains information on all decisions of initial (non-successive) capital federal habeas corpus cases between 1973 and 1995 that finally reviewed capital verdicts imposed during the years 1973 to 1995 when the relevant state had a valid post-Furman capital statute. Part 1 variables include state and state population, population density, death sentence year, year the state enacted a valid post-Furman capital statute, total homicides, number of African-Americans in the state population, number of white and African-American homicide victims, number of prison inmates, number of FBI Index Crimes, number of civil, criminal, and felony court cases awaiting decision, number of death verdicts, number of Black defendants sentenced to death, rate of white victims of homicides for which defendants were sentenced to death per 100 white homicide victims, percentage of death row inmates sentenced to death for offenses against at least one white victim, number of death verdicts reviewed, awaiting review, and granted relief at all three states of review, number of welfare recipients and welfare expenditures, direct expenditures on the court system, party-adjusted judicial ideology index, political pressure index, and several other created variables. Part 2 provides this same state-level information and also provides similar variables at the county level. Court expenditure and welfare data are not provided in Part 2, however. Part 3 provides data on each capital direct appeal decision, including state, FIPS state and county code for trial court county, year of death verdict, year of decision, whether the verdict was affirmed or reversed, and year of first fully valid post-Furman statute. The date and citation for rehearing in the state system and on certiorari to the United States Supreme Court are provided in some cases. For reversals in Part 4 information was collected about state of death verdict, FIPS state and county code for trial court county, year of death verdict, date of relief, basis for reversal, stage of trial and aspect of verdict (guilty of aggravated capital murder, death sentence) affected by reversal, outcome on retrial, and citation. Part 5 variables include state, FIPS state and county codes for trial court county, year of death verdict, defendant's history of alcohol or drug abuse, whether the defendant was intoxicated at the time of the crime, whether the defense attorney was from in-state, whether the defendant was connected to the community where the crime occurred, whether the victim had a high standing in the community, sex of the victim, whether the defendant had a prior record, whether a state evidentiary hearing was held, number of claims for final federal decision, whether a majority of the judges voting to reverse were appointed by Republican presidents, aggravating and mitigating circumstances, whether habeas corpus relief was granted, what claims for habeas corpus relief were presented, and the outcome on each claim that was presented. Part 5 also includes citations to the direct appeal decision, the state post-conviction decision (last state decision on merits), the judicial decision at the pre-penultimate federal stage, the decision at the penultimate federal stage, and the final federal decision.

In 2021, around 12.2 percent of prisoners on death row in the United States were between 40 and 44 years of age. Most prisoners on death row, at 17.6 percent, were between the ages of 50 and 54 years old. The death penalty is authorized in 27 states and by the federal government.

1. Context

Capital punishment is one of the controversial human rights issues in the United States. While surfing the Internet for an interesting dataset, I came across this database by Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which comprises of the offenders' last words before execution. Some of the statements are:

"...Young people, listen to your parents; always do what they tell you to do, go to school, learn from your mistakes. Be careful before you sign anything with your name. Never, despite what other people say..." (Ramiro Hernandez, executed on April 9th, 2014)

"First and foremost I'd like to say, "Justice has never advanced by taking a life" by Coretta Scott King. Lastly, to my wife and to my kids, I love y'all forever and always. That's it." (Taichin Preyor, executed on July 27th, 2017)

As I skimmed these lines, I decided to create this dataset.

2. Content

This dataset includes information on criminals executed by Texas Department of Criminal Justice from 1982 to November 8th, 2017. In Furman v Georgia in 1972, the Supreme Court considered a group of consolidated cases, whereby it severely restricted the death penalty. However, like other states, Texas adjusted its legislation to address the Court's concern and once again allow for capital punishment in 1973. Texas adopted execution by lethal injection in 1977 and in 1982, the starting year of this dataset, the first offender was executed by this method.

The dataset consists of 545 observations with 21 variables. They are:
- Execution: The order of execution, numeric.
- LastName: Last name of the offender, character.
- FirstName: First name of the offender, character.
- TDCJNumber: TDCJ Number of the offender, numeric.
- Age: Age of the offender, numeric.
- Race: Race of the offender, categorical : Black, Hispanic, White, Other.
- CountyOfConviction: County of conviction, character.
- AgeWhenReceived: Age of offender when received, numeric.
- EducationLevel: Education level of offender, numeric.
- Native County: Native county of offender, categorical : 0 = Within Texas, 1= Outside Texas.
- PreviousCrime : Whether the offender committed any crime before, categorical: 0= No, 1= Yes.
- Codefendants: Number of co-defendants, numeric.
- NumberVictim: Number of victims, numeric.
- WhiteVictim, HispanicVictim, BlackVictim, VictimOtherRace. FemaleVictim, MaleVictim: Number of victims with specified demographic features, numeric.
- LastStatement: Last statement of offender, character.

3. Acknowledgement

This dataset is derived from the database by Texas Department of Criminal Justice which can be found in this link: http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/death_row/dr_executed_offenders.html . It can be seen that the original one has fewer than 10 variables and is embedded with some links to sub-datasets, so I manually inputted more variables based on those links.

There are some complications with this dataset. Firstly, the dataset was manually created so mistakes are inevitable, though I have tried my best to minimize them. Secondly, the recording of offender information is not complete and consistent. For example, sometimes the education level of GED is interpreted as 11 years, at other times as 9 or 10 years. "None" and "NA" are used interchangeably, making it hard to distinguish between 0 and NA in the coded variable. The victim's information is often omitted, so I rely on the description of the crime for the names and pronouns to make a judgement of the number of victims and their gender. Finally, the last statements are sometimes recorded in the first person and sometimes in the third, so the word choice might not be original. That being said, I find this dataset meaningful and worth sharing.

4. Inspiration

What are the demographics of the death row inmates? What are the patterns of their last statements? What is the relationship between the two?

Context

The death penalty was authorized by 32 states, the Federal Government, and the U.S. Military. While Connecticut, Maryland, and New Mexico no longer have death penalty statutes, they do currently incarcerate death-sentenced offenders. Texas leads the nation in the number of executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. California, Florida, Texas, and Pennsylvania have the largest death row populations.

The following crimes are Capital Murder in Texas:

• murder of a peace officer or fireman who is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the person knows is a peace officer or fireman;

• murder during the commission or attempted commission of kidnapping, burglary, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, obstruction or retaliation, or terroristic threat;

• murder for remuneration or promise of remuneration or employs another to commit murder for remuneration or promise of remuneration;

• murder during escape or attempted escape from a penal institution;

• murder, while incarcerated in a penal institution, of a correctional employee or with the intent to establish, maintain, or participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination;

• murder while incarcerated in a penal institution for a conviction of murder or capital murder;

• murder while incarcerated in a penal institution serving a life sentence or a 99 year sentence for a conviction of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault, or aggravated robbery;

• murder of more than one person during the same criminal transaction or during different criminal transactions but the murders are committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of conduct;

• murder of an individual under ten years of age; or

• murder in retaliation for or on account of the service or status of the other person as a judge or justice of the supreme court, the court of criminal appeals, a court of appeals, a district court, a criminal district court, a constitutional county court, a statutory county court, a justice court, or a municipal court.

Content

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice publishes various details, including the last words, of every inmate on death row they execute. This dataset includes information on the name, age, race, county, date, and last words of Texas death row inmates from 1982 to 2017.

Acknowledgments

This dataset on last statements by executed offenders was obtained here: https://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/death_row/dr_executed_offenders.html

Start a new kernel

The Death Penalty Census displays death sentences imposed between the Supreme Court’s issuance of the Furman v. Georgia ruling in 1972 and January 1, 2022. Each row in the database below represents a death sentence. You can search death sentences by the name of the defendant sentenced or filter the sentences in various ways. For helpful tips on searching, scroll below the database table. Because of the complex legal processes involved in death-penalty cases, we encourage you to review the Death Penalty Census Codebook, which provides an in-depth explanation of how to interpret sentencing information in the database.

Acknowlegement

Foto von Tingey Injury Law Firm auf Unsplash

In 2021, a total of ** prisoners were executed in the United States, compared to a total of ** prisoners who were executed the year prior. 1999 saw the most prisoners executed in the United States, with ** executions.

In 2023, there were at least *** death sentences recorded in Bangladesh. In contrast, there was *** death sentence recorded in the Maldives, Japan and in South Korea that year.

In 2023, Japan recorded no execution of death sentences. ** executions were reported in 2018, the highest number in the last decade.

Prison Inmates in India

Demographics, Age, Education, Caste, Wages, Rehabilitation, Technical Info

By Rajanand Ilangovan [source]

About this dataset

This dataset provides a detailed view of prison inmates in India, including their age, caste, and educational background. It includes information on inmates from all states/union territories for the year 2019 such as the number of male and female inmates aged 16-18 years, 18-30 year old inmates and those above 50 years old. The data also covers total number of penalized prisoners sentenced to death sentence, life imprisonment or executed by the state authorities. Additionally, it provides information regarding the crimehead (type) committed by an inmate along with its grand total across different age groups. This dataset not only sheds light on India’s criminal justice system but also highlights prevelance of crimes in different states and union territories as well as providing insight into crime trends across Indian states over time

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How to use the dataset

This dataset provides a comprehensive look at the demographics, crimes and sentences of Indian prison inmates in 2019. The data is broken down by state/union territory, year, crime head, age groups and gender.

This dataset can be used to understand the demographic composition of the prison population in India as well as the types of crimes committed. It can also be used to gain insight into any changes or trends related to sentencing patterns in India over time. Furthermore, this data can provide valuable insight into potential correlations between different demographic factors (such as gender and caste) and specific types of crimes or length of sentences handed out.

To use this dataset effectively there are a few important things to keep in mind: •State/UT - This column refers to individual states or union territories in India where prisons are located •Year – This column indicates which year(s) the data relates to •Both genders - Female columns refer only to female prisoners while male columns refers only to male prisoners •Age Groups – 16-18 years old = 21-30 years old = 31-50 years old = 50+ years old •Crime Head – A broad definition for each type of crime that inmates have been convicted for •No Capital Punishment – The total number sentenced with capital punishment No Life Imprisonment – The total number sentenced with life imprisonment No Executed– The total number executed from death sentence Grand Total–The overall totals for each category

By using this information it is possible to answer questions regarding topics such as sentencing trends, types of crimes committed by different age groups or genders and state-by-state variation amongst other potential queries

Research Ideas

• Using the age and gender information to develop targeted outreach strategies for prisons in order to reduce recidivism rates.
• Creating an AI-based predictive model to predict crime trends by analyzing crime head data from a particular region/state and correlating it with population demographics, economic activity, etc.
• Analyzing the caste of inmates across different states in India in order to understand patterns of discrimination within the criminal justice system

Acknowledgements

If you use this dataset in your research, please credit the original authors. Data Source

License

License: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) - You are free to: - Share - copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially. - Adapt - remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. - You must: - Give appropriate credit - Provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. - ShareAlike - You must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

Columns

File: SLL_Crime_headwise_distribution_of_inmates_who_convicted.csv | Column name | Description | |:--------------------------|:---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | STATE/UT | Name of the state or union territory where the jail is located. (String) | | YEAR | Year when the inmate population data was collected. (Integer) ...

In 2021, a total number of ** people were admitted to prison in the United States awaiting execution. Of these, ** prisoners admitted to prison on death row were white. In the United States, ** states and the federal government authorize the death penalty.

This series consist of files compiled to assist the Governor in deciding whether the royal prerogative of mercy should be applied to persons convicted of a capital offence and given the mandatory death sentence (although some offenders, notably those under 21 years or age were sentenced to the Governor's pleasure).

Although the Governor possessed the power to use the royal prerogative and thus commute the death sentence to a lesser one (usually life imprisonment), the final decision was based upon the advice of the Executive Council (also known as the Governor-in-Council) which in turn had formally approved the decision as made in Cabinet. These files were retained by the Law Department, the agency responsible for advising Cabinet through the Attorney-General. Some files in this series relate to subsequent applications made by persons whose sentence had been commuted, or by their relatives, for their early release.

Files to about 1870 typically took the form of a report submitted to the Governor written by the trial judge. Occasionally other material was attached. Those files were also minuted with details of the eventual sentence. Most files after that date will contain a letter sent by the trial judge to the Attorney-General officially to notify him of the sentence and a copy of the judge's case notes and trial transcript. Other items variously found include reports (e.g., prison, psychiatric, etc.) written by various agencies as to the suitability of the person for mercy, copies of Executive Council minutes (taken from VPRS 1080), any letters, petitions, telegrams or other correspondence received, police photographs of the person and newspaper cuttings related to the case. The size of files varied considerably reflecting the degree of action taken and the publicity the case may have attracted.

Relationship between VPRS 264 and VPRS 1100 Capital Sentence Files

To all intents and purposes, the files in this series and VPRS 1100 Capital Sentence Files are part of the same sequence. The difference between the two series lies in the ultimate destination of the files. The files in VPRS 1100 were retained by the Governor's Office and were stored in a cabinet in the Executive Council chamber while the files in this series were sent from the Governor's Office to the Law Department. From about 1870 these files were allocated a Law Department inward correspondence registry number. The inward correspondence registers (VPRS 251) show that these files were stored separately from the correspondence.

Series (VPRS 264) ended in 1975 when the death penalty was abolished under the Crimes (Capital Offences) Act 1975. Legislation relating to the prerogative prior to this date was successively contained in:
* An act to Substitute other Punishments in Lieu of Transportation (NSW)
* An Act to Remove Doubts as to the Power of the Governor to Commute the Sentence of Death 1861
* Criminal Law and Practice Statute 1864 (s.319)
* Crimes Act 1890 (s.541-542) (and successive Crimes Acts).

As of August 8, 2024, Texas has executed a total of 598 people since the reinstatement of capital punishment in the United States in 1976. Oklahoma had the second-highest number of executed inmates, with 125 executions carried out since 1976.

In 2023, there were at least *** thousand people known to be under death sentence in Pakistan. Comparatively, there were ** people known to be under death sentences in the Maldives that year.

These data offer objective and subjective information about current death row inmates and the management policies and procedures related to their incarceration. The major objectives of the study were to gather data about the inmate population and current management policies and procedures, to identify issues facing correctional administrators in supervising the growing number of condemned inmates, and to offer options for improved management. Four survey instruments were developed: (1) a form for the Department of Corrections in each of the 37 states that had a capital punishment statute as of March 1986, (2) a form for each warden of an institution that housed death-sentenced inmates, (3) a form for staff members who worked with such inmates, and (4) a form for a sample of the inmates. The surveys included questions about inmate demographics (e.g., date of birth, sex, race, Hispanic origin, level of education, marital status, and number of children), the institutional facilities available to death row inmates, state laws pertaining to them, training for staff who deal with them, the usefulness of various counseling, medical, and recreational programs, whether the inmates expected to be executed, and the challenges in managing the death row population. The surveys did not probe legal, moral, or political arguments about the death penalty itself.