The number of people executed in the United States
this year dropped to the lowest level since 1991, as states impose fewer death
sentences and defendants in capital cases get access to better legal help, reported the Associated Press.
Here is my recent GateHouse Media column on the death penalty.
Here is my recent GateHouse Media column on the death penalty.
The Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit
organization that opposes capital punishment and tracks the issue, said 28
inmates were executed as of Dec. 15, down from 35 last year and far below the
peak of 98 in 1999.
Another 49 criminal defendants received death
sentences this year, down 33 percent from 2014 and the lowest number since the
early 1970s.
The numbers reflect a steady decline in death
sentences over the past 15 years and a broad shift in public attitudes that has
made capital punishment increasingly rare, said Robert Dunham, the group’s
executive director.
“What we’re
seeing is the cumulative effect of falling public support for the death
penalty,” Dunham said.
About 61 percent of Americans support the death
penalty in murder cases, according to a Gallup poll in October, but that share
has inched downward while opposition has crept up.
While capital punishment remains legal in 31 states,
only six states accounted for all the executions this year — Florida, Missouri,
Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia. That’s the fewest since 1988.
Texas led the way with 13 executions, followed by
six in Missouri and five in Georgia. But Texas imposed only two new death
sentences this year, while Georgia and Virginia had no new death row inmates.
The total number of death row inmates nationwide is
now below 3,000 for first time since 1995.
A shortage of lethal injection drugs has meant de
facto freezes in several states, including Ohio and Nebraska. In Arkansas, a
judge halted executions of eight inmates amid a legal fight over whether the
state can keep secret the identity of manufacturers and sellers of its
execution drugs.
Oklahoma recently said it was halting all executions
until well into next year while officials investigate two botched lethal
injections and a third that was called off because the wrong drug was
delivered.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court upheld
Oklahoma’s use of a controversial sedative in lethal injection executions, but
two justices said for the first time they think it’s “highly likely” the death
penalty itself is unconstitutional.
Death penalty opponents are hoping the high court
eventually will abolish the penalty as cruel and unusual under the
Constitution. Even Justice Antonin Scalia, a longtime defender of capital
punishment, told an audience this year that he wouldn’t be surprised if the
court invalidates the death penalty.
Another factor in the recent decline is improved
legal representation for defendants. Georgia, Texas and Virginia have all
created statewide capital-case defender programs staffed by attorneys who
specialize in those cases.
Since 1973, more than 150 people who had been
sentenced to death have been exonerated after presenting evidence of their
innocence. Six death row prisoners were cleared of all charges this year.
“There is a very significant relationship between
providing defendants good representation and the outcomes of capital cases,”
Dunham said.
Other factors cited in the decline of executions
include the high cost of death penalty prosecutions and states such as Texas
and Virginia now instructing juries that they have the option of sentencing
capital defendants to life without the possibility of parole.
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