Question

8.14 Capital punishment. Between 1977 and 2014, 1394 convicted criminals were put to death in the United States. Here are data on the number of executions in several states during those years, as well as the estimated June 1, 2014, population of these states: State Population (thousands) Executions Alabama 4,849 56 Arkansas 2,966 27 Delaware 936 16 Florida 19,893 89 Indiana 6,597 20 Nevada 2,839 12 Oklahoma 3,878 111 Texas 26,957 518 Texas and Florida are among the leaders in executions. Because these are large states, we might expect them to have many executions. Find the rate of executions for each of the states just listed, in executions per million population. Because population is given in thousands, you can find the rate per million as rate per million = × 1000 Arrange the states in order of the number of executions relative to population. Are Texas and Florida still high by this measure? Does any other state stand out when you examine the rates?

Answer 1