MISSOURI — More than 70% of countries worldwide have effectively abolished the death penalty, including all but one European nation. The United States, however, is an outlier, particularly among developed, democratic countries — and across the country, there are more than 2,000 people on death row.
Under the Biden administration, the federal government has had a standing moratorium on death sentences since July 1st, 2021. This followed a period where executions at the federal level surged during the Trump administration.
State governments can form their laws regarding capital punishment, and at the state level, death sentences and executions have become less common in recent years. Among the 27 states where the death penalty remains legal, its use is limited for those convicted of the most horrific crimes, such as multiple homicides, murder of a police officer, or murder of a child.
According to Death Row U.S.A. Spring 2022, a report by the Legal Defense Fund, 20 people were on death row in Missouri as of April 1st, 2022 – the 18th most among states. After Tuesday night’s (11/29) state execution of 37-year-old Kevin Johnson, 19 people in Missouri remain on death row (still 18th most among states).
A jury typically hands down death sentences, and due in part to a lengthy appeals process and a shortage of lethal injection drugs, prisoners often spend years or decades on death row before sentencing is carried out. From 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty after a short-lived prohibition, to April 1st, 2022, a total of 91 state prisoners in Missouri were executed.
Rank | State | Death Row Inmates, April 1st, 2022 | Executions From 1976 – April 1st, 2022 | Total prisoners per 100,000 people, 2020 |
1 | California | 690 | 13 | 247 |
2 | Florida | 323 | 99 | 371 |
3 | Texas | 199 | 573 | 455 |
4 | Alabama | 166 | 69 | 398 |
5 | North Carolina | 138 | 43 | 271 |
6 | Ohio | 134 | 56 | 385 |
7 | Pennsylvania | 128 | 3 | 308 |
8 | Arizona | 116 | 37 | 495 |
9 | Nevada | 65 | 12 | 361 |
10 | Louisiana | 62 | 28 | 581 |
11 | Tennessee | 47 | 13 | 328 |
12 | Oklahoma | 42 | 116 | 559 |
13 | Georgia | 41 | 76 | 433 |
14 | Mississippi | 37 | 22 | 584 |
15 | South Carolina | 37 | 43 | 304 |
16 | Arkansas | 29 | 31 | 529 |
17 | Kentucky | 27 | 3 | 414 |
18 | Oregon | 21 | 2 | 300 |
19 | Missouri | 20 | 91 | 374 |
20 | Nebraska | 12 | 4 | 269 |
21 | Kansas | 9 | 0 | 298 |
22 | Idaho | 8 | 3 | 398 |
23 | Indiana | 8 | 20 | 351 |
24 | Utah | 7 | 7 | 166 |
25 | Montana | 2 | 3 | 362 |
26 | South Dakota | 1 | 5 | 362 |
27 | New Hampshire | 1 | 0 | 172 |
You’ll find information on the latest death row inmate to be executed in Missouri HERE.