Seventy-four people, all male, were executed in the United States in 1997, sixty-eight by lethal injection, and six by electrocution. Maryland carried out its first involuntary execution since the early 1960s. Colorado conducted its last execution that same year before the state officially abolished capital punishment in 2020. Oregon conducted its last execution that same year before the state suspended the use of capital punishment, with then Governor Kate Brown commuting the death sentences of 17 inmates to life without parole and thus emptying the state's death row before the end of her term in 2022.