The Marshall Project Analysis Finds Missouri Executes at One of the Nation’s Highest Rates

Nationally, about 18% of death sen­tences have end­ed in exe­cu­tion. Among states that have sen­tenced at least 10 peo­ple to death, Missouri’s rate of exe­cu­tions trails only Virginia, which abol­ished the death penal­ty in 2021. Missouri’s death row peaked at 96 peo­ple in the late 1990s and has fall­en to nine peo­ple. Nationally, about 41% of death sen­tences have ulti­mate­ly been reduced to life or anoth­er less­er sen­tence through suc­cess­ful appeals. Mr. McFadden’s death sen­tences have twice been over­turned and he was twice recon­vict­ed.