As with most criminal justice issues, capital punishment is primarily enforced at the state level. More than half of the states have statutes permitting and regulating the death penalty. (There is also a federal death penalty, which was last used in 2003).

Several states have litigation pending against the death penalty, which has put a halt to executions, at least temporarily. Pennsylvania, a state with one of the most populous death rows, signed 19 execution warrants in 2015 but has not actually executed anyone since 1999, and the governor has declared a moratorium. Similarly in California, the state with the most inmates condemned to die, executions have been on hold since a 2006 ruling. Nebraska’s legislature repealed the death penalty in 2015, but voters later restored it, a largely symbolic gesture as the state hasn’t executed anyone since 1997.

Then there are the states that are still actively executing inmates on death row. Many operate under the cover of secrecy laws and despite a nationwide shortage of lethal injection drugs. The de facto leader by count alone is Texas, a state that has executed people since 1976. In all, there are 10 states that have executed people since 2013: Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma, Florida, Missouri, Georgia, Alabama, Ohio, Arizona and Arkansas.