Georgia leads nation in number of executions as Texas slows

FILE-In this Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015 file photo, a unidentified prisoner on death row stands in his cell at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, in Jackson, Ga. Georgia led the nation this year in the number of inmates put to death, an anomaly that's due at least in part to executions in Texas dipping into single digits for the first time in 20 years. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - This Oct. 24, 2001 file photo shows the death chamber at the state prison in Jackson, Ga. (AP Photo/Ric Feld, File) (The Associated Press)

ATLANTA – Georgia led the nation this year in the number of inmates put to death, an anomaly that's due at least in part to executions in Texas dipping into single digits for the first time in 20 years.

With nine lethal injections in 2016, Georgia accounted for nearly half of the 20 executions nationwide. It was the most inmates the state has put to death in a calendar year since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed executions to resume 40 years ago. It was almost twice as many as the state's previous record of five, set in 1987 and matched last year.

Texas, meanwhile, executed seven, the fewest the state has put to death since 1996, when three people were executed. Alabama had two executions, and Florida and Missouri had one apiece.