Fewer Executions Nationwide In 2010

It appears that the U.S. will execute fewer people this year than last year. In 2009, 52 inmates were executed: 24 in Texas; 6 in Alabama; 5 in Ohio; 3 each in Georgia, Oklahoma, and Virginia; 2 each in Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee; and 1 each in Indiana and Missouri, according to the Department of Justice. Fifty-one executions were by lethal injection and 1 by electrocution.

So far in 2010, there have been 45 executions in 12 states. Forty-three were by lethal injection, 1 by electrocution and 1 by firing squad. There is only one execution scheduled before the end of the year and the world will be watching.

Oklahoma is considering the use of pentobarbital, a drug used to euthanize animals, in the upcoming execution of John David Duty, a convicted murderer scheduled to be executed on December 12th. Oklahoma's decision is the result of a national shortage of sodium thiopental a drug used for lethal injection in 35 states.