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Capital Punishment, 1980

NCJ Number
78600
Date Published
1981
Length
97 pages
Annotation
This report is one in a series published under the National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) program. It summarizes data on prisoners under sentence of death in 1980, on prisoners executed since 1930, and on recent trends in capital punishment legislation.
Abstract

No one was executed during 1980, but a record high of 714 persons were held on death row at yearend. The number of persons relieved of the death penalty was the smallest in more than a decade. As in past editions, the 1980 report examines death row inmates by race, age, marital status at time of imprisonment, level of education, legal status at time of arrest, offense, and length of stay on death row. The data include counts of women and Hispanic prisoners and of inmates removed from death row during the year, by method of removal and status at yearend. Updated information on the status of capital punishment legislation for the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the Federal system is summarized in Appendix I. Data tables on which the report is based are in Appendix II. Data were collected and analyzed by the Bureau of the Census under contract to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.