The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2017 sentences during the reporting period. All the people sentenced to death were men. The Federal Government handed down two sentences, to Gary Lee Sampson and Dylann Storm Roof. The former was sentenced by a federal jury in Massachusetts in January 2017, the second time a jury voted to give him the death penalty.92 A federal jury found Dylann Roof guilty of 33 counts, including hate crimes resulting in death, for the killing of nine African-Americans in a church in Charleston, South Carolina.93 Executions between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017 Country State Alabama Georgia United States of America Missouri Texas Virginia Name Ronald Bert Smith Jr. Kenneth Fults Daniel Lucas John Conner Gregory Paul Lawler Steven Frederick Spears William Sallie Earl Forrest Mark Christenson Pablo Vasquez Barney Ronald Fuller Jr. Christopher Wilkins Terry Darnell Edwards Rolando Ruiz James Bigby Rick Javon Gray Age at Execution 53 Race, Gender White, Male Method of execution Lethal Injection 47 37 60 63 Black, Male White, Male White, Male White, Male Lethal Injection Lethal Injection Lethal Injection Lethal Injection 50 White, Male Lethal Injection 50 White, Male Lethal Injection 66 37 38 53 White, Male White, Male Latino, Male White, Male Lethal Injection Lethal Injection Lethal Injection Lethal Injection 48 White, Male Lethal Injection 43 Black, Male Lethal Injection 44 61 39 Latino, Male White, Male Black, Male Lethal Injection Lethal Injection Lethal Injection During the reporting period, 16 executions were carried out in the United States of America. Georgia and Texas executed six death row inmates each, Missouri two, while Alabama and Virginia each carried out one execution. The executed were all men. In Alabama, Ronald Bert Smith Jr.’s execution on 8 December 2016 raised several criticisms. During a 13-minute span toward the start of the process, Smith 92  Milton J. Valencia, “Gary Lee Sampson gets the death penalty”, Boston Globe, 9 Juanuary 2017, <https:// www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/01/09/sampson-jurors-continue-death-penalty-deliberations/fGpcceiNQXlRXGkdprIgnL/story.html>. 93  Alan Blinder and Kevin Sackjan, “Dylann Roof Is Sentenced to Death in Charleston Church Massacre”, The New York Times, 10 January 2017, <https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/us/dylann-roof-trial-charleston.html>. 31