A group that tracks death penalty data says nine states in the U.S. carried out executions this year, the fewest number in two decades.
The findings were released Tuesday in an annual report by the Death Penalty Information Center(( based in Washington)).
The group says more than three-quarters of the 2012 executions were clustered in four states -- Texas, which executed 15 inmates, and six each in Arizona, Oklahoma and Mississippi.
The group says a total of 43 inmates were executed in the U.S. this year, the same as in 2011.
Capital punishment has remained a highly contentious issue in the U.S. since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The Death Penalty Information Center says more than half of the 50 states in the U.S. now have no death penalty or have not carried out an execution in five years.
However, Amnesty International said the U.S. was among five countries with the highest reported number of executions in 2011. In a March report, the rights group said China carried out the most executions, followed by Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the U.S.