It's not often that the U.S. Supreme Court stays an execution, as it did late Thursday in the case of convicted murderer Duane Buck. But the justices routinely consider such requests, given that 34 states permit capital punishment. Since 1999, when a record 99 inmates were put to death, the number of executions has dropped slightly, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment.

Can you guess which five states had the most executions over the past four years?

#5 Virginia

Virginia did not execute anyone in 2007, but it has carried out the death penalty 10 times since then. Death-row inmates may choose between lethal injection and electrocution, which two people have opted for in recent years.

The state executed six black men, three white men, and one white woman. One was John Allen Muhammad, the "D.C. sniper" who was found responsible for the shooting deaths of 10 victims within the Washington Beltway over a three-week period in 2002.

#4 Oklahoma

Oklahoma has executed 11 people – eight white and three black – since 2007, for an annual rate of about three executions a year.

The state joined Ohio in substituting a new drug, pentobarbital, for sodium thiopental to carry out three additional executions in 2011. Critics say the drug, a sedative used to euthanize animals, has not been tested for this purpose. Lundbeck, the Denmark-based US supplier, is also opposed to its use in executions. Oklahoma was also the last state to execute a person for a crime committed as a juvenile, which it did in 2003.

#3 Alabama

Alabama averaged 4.6 executions a year between 2007 and 2010. Of the 15 inmates executed during that time, eight were white and seven were black. Alabama has the highest use of the death penalty per capita, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

#2 Ohio

Ohio’s use of the death penalty has seen a steady increase in recent years, rising from two executions in 2007 to five in 2009 to eight in 2010. Of the 15 inmates executed during the past four years, eight were white and seven were black.

A federal judge stayed an execution in Ohio over the summer out of concern about the process the state uses for its lethal injections, which involves a switch to the drug pentobarbital. The chief justice of the state's Supreme Court is now reviewing the matter.

By law, Ohio excludes public viewings of executions.

#1 Texas

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.

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/articl...ost-executions