With public support for the death penalty at its lowest point in more than 4
decades, the U.S. is on track for its fewest executions in a quarter century.
So far in 2016, 17 inmates have been executed, according to a database
maintained by the Death Penalty Information Center. 3 additional executions are
scheduled for this year. If all 3 proceed as planned, the year's 20 executions
will be the fewest since 1991, when 14 were recorded. The U.S. has executed at
least 28 people in each year since 1992.
Just 5 states - Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Texas - account for the
17 completed and 3 scheduled executions this year. This represents the fewest
states to carry out executions in any year since 1983. In 1999, by comparison,
20 states conducted executions.
1 reason for the national decline in executions has been a decrease in Texas,
which is scheduled to execute 8 inmates this year, a 20-year low. Texas has
long been the nation's leader in executions, carrying out nearly 5 times as
many as any other state since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital
punishment in 1976. During that span, Texas carried out 538 executions,
compared with 112 in Oklahoma and 111 in Virginia.
Legal and practical challenges have prevented some states from carrying out
executions this year. Ohio, for example, has not executed anyone since 2014
amid difficulties acquiring the drugs needed to conduct lethal injections. The
state announced this month that it will resume executions next year, using a
new protocol.
The number of states with the death penalty on the books - currently 30 - also
could decline this year. Voters in California and Nebraska will decide Nov. 8
whether to eliminate or retain their capital punishment laws.
In California, which has the nation's largest death row, Proposition 62 would
eliminate the death penalty and replace it with a maximum penalty of life
imprisonment without parole. The measure would apply retroactively and, if
approved, resentence the more than 700 people on death row to life without
parole. A competing measure, Proposition 66, would retain capital punishment
but change legal procedures related to death penalty appeals. (If both measures
pass, the one with more "yes" votes will prevail.)
In Nebraska, voters will revisit a May 2015 decision by the state Legislature
to abolish capital punishment and replace it with a maximum penalty of life
without parole for the crime of murder. Referendum 426 asks whether to retain
or repeal the state law that eliminated the death penalty.
A 3rd state, Oklahoma, will also vote on a proposal related to capital
punishment. Question 776 would solidify the state's death penalty against legal
or legislative challenges by adding provisions to the state constitution,
including a declaration that capital punishment "is not cruel and unusual
punishment."
A Pew Research Center survey conducted Aug. 23-Sept. 2 found that 49% of
Americans support the death penalty for those convicted of murder, compared
with 42% who oppose it. While the share of supporters reached a 4-decade low,
voters remain divided along party lines. Nearly 3/4 (72%) of Republicans favor
the death penalty for those convicted of murder, compared with 34% of
Democrats.
Both major-party presidential candidates, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat
Hillary Clinton, favor the death penalty. The federal government has not
executed anyone since 2003, carrying out just 3 executions in the modern era of
capital punishment.
Source: Pew Research Center, October 22, 2016
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