Area chart of the number of persons under sentence of death in the United States from 1954 to 2007.
The number of prisoners under sentence of death began at 147 in 1954 and increased to 631 in 1970. Then the number decreased to 134 in 1973, before increasing to 3,601 in 2000. After 2000, it decreased to 3,220 in 2007.