Death penalty imposition varies sharply by state, with Southern states dominating executions.

Evidence

States vary considerably as to whether and how often they impose the death penalty: Oklahoma has the country’s highest per-capita execution rate, and Southern states account for more than 80 percent of all executions (see Table 6. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1988

Categorization

• XREF: Links to the course’s concern with how geography and state institutions shape legal policy.