Today the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics has released this new report with data on the administration of capital punishment in the United States through the end of 2020. (As I have noted before, though BJS provides great data on criminal justice administration, in the capital punishment arena the Death Penalty Information Center tends to have more up-to-date and more detailed data on capital punishment.)
This new BJS report provides notable and clear statistical snapshots about the death penalty in the US, and the document starts with this introduction and these “highlights” on the first two pages of a 26-page document:
At yearend 2020, a total of 28 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) held 2,469 prisoners under sentence of death, which was 94 (4%) fewer than at yearend 2019...
