NCJ Number
179928
Journal
Criminal Justice Policy Review Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Dated: March 1999 Pages: 7-28
Date Published
1999
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This article overviews the status of capital punishment in the Northeastern United States and includes a list of States that authorize the death penalty; the number, race, and ethnicity of prisoners convicted and sentenced to die; and the actual number of prisoners executed.
Abstract
Of the nine States comprising the Northeast, five have the death penalty (Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania), while four do not (Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont). The data show capital punishment has not been as warmly embraced in the Northeast as it has in other regions of the country. As of January 1, 1999, 249 persons were on death row in the Northeast, while the number of persons on death row nationwide totaled 3,549. Of the 249 death row inmates, 150 (about 60 percent) were black. Only two persons have been executed in the Northeast since 1976, both in Pennsylvania. Housing arrangements for death row prisoners in the Northeast and capital punishment laws in the States are briefly described. 42 references, 21 notes, and 3 tables