Eleven people, ten male and one female, were executed in the United States in 2021, all by lethal injection. With only eleven executions occurring throughout the year, 2021 saw the fewest number of executions within a single year since 1988.
List of people executed in the United States in 2021 Date of execution Name Age of person Gender Ethnicity State Method At execution At offense Age difference 1 January 13, 2021 52 36 16 Female WhiteFederal governmentLethal injection 2 January 14, 2021 23 29MaleBlack 3 January 16, 2021 48 25 4 May 19, 2021 41 20 21Texas 5 June 30, 2021 45 34 11White 6 September 28, 2021 57 27 30 7 October 5, 2021 61 33 28Black Missouri 8 October 21, 2021 52 22 30 Alabama 9 October 28, 2021 60 37 23 Oklahoma 10 November 17, 2021 50 39 11White Mississippi 11 December 9, 2021 79 42 37 Oklahoma Average: 54 years 31 years 23 years
Demographics Gender Male 10 91% Female 1 9% Ethnicity Black 6 55% White 5 45% State Federal government 3 27% Texas 3 27% Oklahoma 2 18% Alabama 1 9% Mississippi 1 9% Missouri 1 9% Method Lethal injection 11 100% Month January 3 27% February 0 0% March 0 0% April 0 0% May 1 9% June 1 9% July 0 0% August 0 0% September 1 9% October 3 27% November 1 9% December 1 9% Age 40–49 3 27% 50–59 5 45% 60–69 2 18% 70–79 1 9% Total 11 100%
Executions in recent years Number of executions 2022 18 2021 11 2020 17 Total 46
Canceled executions A number of executions were canceled in 2021. Two executions in Tennessee were stayed indefinitely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Three executions in Texas were also stayed to review intellectual disability claims. Five more executions in Texas were reprieved due to the state not allowing the inmate's pastors to lay their hands on them during the execution. Three executions in Ohio were reprieved due to the unofficial moratorium in place on capital punishment in Ohio by Governor Mike DeWine, due to problems in securing the drugs needed for lethal injections. All three of these executions were rescheduled for 2024, however all three were postponed again until 2027. An execution in Pennsylvania was also reprieved due to the moratorium in place on capital punishment in Pennsylvania by Governor Tom Wolf. The execution of Gerald Pizzuto in Idaho was stayed by the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole after they granted a request for a commutation hearing. Attorneys from both sides agreed to the stay of execution until the hearing concluded in November 2021.
Two execution dates of Freddie Eugene Owens and Brad Sigmon in South Carolina were stayed by the South Carolina Supreme Court because the state did not have a way of carrying out execution by firing squad at the time. The new capital punishment law in the state requires inmates to pick between the electric chair or firing squad. At the time, South Carolina had no way of executing inmates via firing squad, meaning the inmates had no choice but to be executed via electrocution. The court ruled the inmates must have the choice available to them before they can be executed. The execution of Zane Floyd in Nevada was stayed by a federal judge, who ruled that the state needed more time to determine the constitutionality of the lethal injection drugs that would be used for his execution. The execution of Julius Jones in Oklahoma was halted hours before he was due to be executed after his death sentence was commuted to life without the possibility of parole by Governor Kevin Stitt.
See also List of death row inmates in the United States List of juveniles executed in the United States since 1976 List of most recent executions by jurisdiction List of people executed by the United States federal government List of people executed in Texas, 2020–present List of women executed in the United States since 1976
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