16 states executed 56 convicted killers in 1995.

In 1995, more menwalked to their deaths in U.S. prisons than in any year since 1957. No women were executed last year, but 48 are on death row.

Fifty-six convicted killers were executed--49 by lethal injection and 7 by electrocution, according to Tracy Snell, a statistician for the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). Of the 38 states that have death penalty laws, 16 carried out executions in 1995. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, Bulletin: Capital Punishment 199S, NCJ-162043 (Dec.1996).)

State totals

Texas executed the most prisoners (19), followed by Missouri (6); Illinois and Virginia (5 each); Florida and Oklahoma (3 each); Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania (2 each); and Arizona, Delaware, Louisiana, Montana, and South Carolina (1 each). Of those executed, 31 were white, 22 were African-American, 2 were Hispanic, and 1 was Asian.

Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit group located in Washington, D.C., that tracks death penalty cases, said that the jump in executions--while significant--was also somewhat inevitable. "A lot of these cases were simply running out of appeals," he said.

"People looking at the study should bear in mind that it is only a snapshot of a single year," Dieter said. "It's hard to pinpoint trends one way or the other from just one 12-month period."

Still, Dieter said, the increased pace of executions can be attributed to four specific factors: (1) an end to federal funding for postconviction defender organizations--which are known as PCDOs--to assist with death row appeals, (2) attempts by Congress to revise laws governing state prisoners' access to federal courts, (3) moves by some states to speed the appellate process in death penalty cases, and (4) a mood shift in the executive and judicial branches favoring swifter executions.

During 1995, a total of 19 states revised their death penalty laws. Most of the changes involved the conditions under which the penalty could be imposed, procedural amendments increasing the rights of victims and their families, and execution methods.

Ironically, the prisoners executed in 1995 had been on death row for an average of 11 years and 2 months, which was about a year longer than the 31 executed during 1994. In comparison, the 18 prisoners executed in 1985 had been on death row an average of 5 years and 11 months.

"Despite the recent legislative and judicial activity to speed up the process, it will take some time for the numbers to reflect the changes," Dieter said. "But clearly, the laws will speed up the process."

Deadly methods

At the end of 1995, 32 states had authorized lethal injection, 11 electrocution, 7 lethal gas, 4 hanging, and 3 a firing squad. Of the 38 states that allow capital punishment, all but Arkansas require an automatic review of the sentence irrespective of the defendant's wishes.

Alaska, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin do not allow capital punishment.

As of December 31, 1995, the youngest man on death row was an 18-year-old in Nevada; the oldest, an 80-year-old in Arizona. Eight men had been sentenced to death under federal jurisdiction.

To obtain a copy of the report, Bulletin: Capital Punishment l 995, call the BJS Clearinghouse at [phone] or the fax-ondemand service at [phone].The bulletin is also available on BJS's Internet home page at http://ww.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs. Click on `What's New at BJS."