U.S. Executions at a 13-Year Low
Forty-two people were executed in the United States this year, the lowest number since 1994, when 31 people were put to death.
Court challenges to the constitutionality of lethal injection procedures have slowed the pace of executions, according to a report by the Death Penalty Information Center.
But executions also appear to be dropping because juries are imposing fewer death sentences, the center’s executive director, Richard Dieter, told the Washington Post. His group estimates 110 death sentences were imposed in 2007, the lowest number since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
“I wouldn’t say the death penalty is being rejected by the public, but there’s definitely a reconsideration under way,” Dieter told the New York Times.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on Jan. 7 in a Kentucky case to determine the standard courts should use when assessing whether lethal injection violates the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
