Georgia and Texas carried out 80 percent of the nation's executions in 2016, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
During 2016, five states executed 20 inmates. That total was the smallest number of executions since 1991, according to the report and eight fewer executions than the number carried out in 2015.
Credit: Carrie Teegardin
Credit: Carrie Teegardin
Georgia topped the 2016 charts with nine executions, and Texas had seven, according to the report.
The national report on capital punishment trends focused on statistics covering 2014 and 2015.
At the end of 2015, 33 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons held 2,881 inmates under sentence of death. That was 61 fewer prisons on death rows across the country than at the end of 2014.
The number of inmates under a death sentence nationally has declined for 15 years in a row, the report said. In 2015, there were 82 inmates across the country who were removed from death sentences by a means other than an execution.
While Georgia carried out the most executions last year, it doesn't top the list for the number of people on death row.
At the end of 2015, California had 739 prisoners under sentence of death, followed by Florida with 390. Georgia ranked 11th nationally at the end of 2015, with 71 people sentenced to death.
You can read more about the people on Georgia's death row here: http://www.myajc.com/crime-law/georgia-death-row-inmates/
Georgia is scheduled to carry out another execution this month. J.W. Ledford is scheduled to die on May 16.
At the end of 2015, 15 states and the District of Columbia did not have the death penalty. Other states are phasing it out by allowing no death sentences after certain dates.
Here are the jurisdictions without the death penalty in 2015: Alaska, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin.
