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Death penalty's top 5: Which US states have the most executions?

It's not often that the US Supreme Court stays an execution, as it did in the Duane Buck case on Sept. 15. But the justices routinely consider such requests, given than 34 states permit capital punishment. Here are the five states with the most executions between 2007-10.

1. Texas

  • By Leigh Montgomery Staff

The number of executions annually in Texas dwarfs those of any other state. The Lone Star State has averaged 21 executions a year, all by lethal injection, since 2007. Of the 85 men put to death over that time, 36 were black, 28 were white, and 21 were Latino.

The state has performed more than one-third of modern executions in the United States, including Charles Brooks Jr. in 1982, the first person put to death by lethal injection.

The Texas Constitution forbids the governor from imposing a moratorium on executions.

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