Multiple Articles: How the death penalty continued its slow, steady decline in 2014
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Dec 18, 2014, 12:40:37 AM12/18/14
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US executes fewer prisoners, but deaths are more brutal: report
In-Depth-The Guardian
Executions Hit 20-Year Low in U.S.
U.S. News & World Report
___In-Depth-The Guardian
Executions Hit 20-Year Low in U.S.
U.S. News & World Report
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/12/18/how-the-death-penalty-continued-its-slow-steady-decline-in-2014/
How the death penalty continued its slow, steady decline in 2014
Washington Post
By Mark Berman
December 18 at 12:01 AM
The death penalty is on the decline in the United States in every conceivable category. Fewer states execute inmates, fewer executions are carried out and fewer people are sentenced to death in the first place.
This year, as executions went awry in high-profile ways, this clear trend continued. The United States executed 35 inmates in 2014, the smallest number in two decades. And the number of inmates sentenced to death is projected to be 72, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which would be fewer than a quarter of the number of death sentences handed down in the mid-1990s.
“Not every year will show declines in every measure, but the overall pattern has been away from the death penalty,” the Death Penalty Information Center said its annual report, which was released early Thursday morning.
As a sign of how much of the country has shifted away from the practice, four out of five executions were carried out in just three states: Texas, Missouri and Florida. A total of seven states carried out executions, which is also significantly down from the 20 states that executed inmates in 1999.
“The traditional problems with the death penalty persisted in 2014,” the report stated.
The most consistent problem continues to involve the drugs used to carry out the executions. In recent years, as states have had trouble obtaining the drugs that were typically used until 2010, they have scrambled to find other drugs. (They have also contemplated using other methods to carry out executions, including the electric chair, the gas chamber and the firing squad.) This has resulted in what the Death Penalty Information Center report called an “experiment with lethal injection drugs,” something exemplified by the four different drug combinations used in the first four executions this year.
States have also been using drug cocktails that have not been previously utilized, which cropped up in two of the three executions that were problematic enough to draw public notice this year. Ohio’s execution of Dennis McGuire in January took nearly 25 minutes, and McGuire snorted and gasped before he died; his children filed a lawsuit saying that he suffered during the execution. He was put to death with a combination of midazolam and hydromorphone, a pairing that had not been used in an execution before. In July, Arizona used the same drug combination when it executed Joseph R. Wood III, but he gasped and snorted for nearly two hours (during which he was given 15 doses of each drug) before dying.
An Oklahoma execution drew worldwide criticism after the inmate, Clayton Lockett, kicked and writhed before his execution was halted, but he ultimately died a short time later. This execution involved a series of errors by the team carrying out the lethal injection, problems outlined by a state investigation that found poor planning, issues with the IV delivering the drugs and communication failures.
Still, even as these executions sparked criticism, public support did not really waver. While it is much lower than it was two decades ago, it still did not shift much after these botches.
In addition to problems with how executions were carried out, the new report also highlights exonerations in four states, pointing to another common criticism of the death penalty: Its permanence, which pairs uncomfortably with the obvious history of people being wrongly convicted and eventually cleared. (Just this week, a judge in South Carolina threw out a teenager’s murder conviction 70 years after the 14-year-old boy was put to death.)
“Seven former death row inmates were exonerated this year, the most since 2009,” the report states. “Two men were freed in North Carolina, one each in Louisiana and Florida, and three in Ohio.”
As of Oct. 1, there were more than 3,000 people on death row, according to the report, and this number has fallen every year since 2001.
California has more inmates on death row than any other two states combined, something that has not gone unnoticed. Earlier this year, a federal judge called the California death penalty system unconstitutional, saying that the system is riddled with so many delays that it is “completely dysfunctional.” The state has executed 13 people since 1976 and has not executed anyone since 2006; between 1997 and 2013, Texas never executed fewer than 13 people each year.
Related: Everything you need to know about executions in the United States.
Mark Berman is a reporter on the National staff. He runs Post Nation, a destination for breaking news and developing stories from around the country.
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-executions-death-sentences-reach-multiyear-lows-1418879365?mod=rss_US_News
U.S. Executions, Death Sentences Reach Multiyear Lows
In 2014, 35 People Were Put to Death—The Fewest Since 1994, Report Says
Wall Street Journal
By Ashby Jones
Dec. 18, 2014 12:09 a.m. ET
The use of the death penalty in the U.S. is dwindling, with the number of executions and death sentences reaching multiyear lows in 2014.
In 2014, 35 people were executed—the fewest since 1994, according to the latest annual report by the Death Penalty Information Center. Executions took place in only seven states.
Meanwhile, 72 people were sentenced to death this year, the lowest number since 1974, the report said.
The figures represent the continuance of a downward trend that reaches back to the 1990s.
In 1999, the high-water mark for executions, 98 inmates were put to death.
In each of the years from 1994 to 1996, more than 300 people were sent to death row. Both numbers largely have been shrinking for the last 15 years.
“We’ve been moving away from the death penalty for many years now, and that trend is likely to continue,” said Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
The organization is largely opposed to the death penalty, citing a lack of transparency with how it is carried out, the increasingly fraught methods of execution and its sometimes haphazard application. The group’s annual statistical reports on the death penalty generally are viewed as reliable by people on both sides off the debate.
The slide in death sentences began alongside a rise in the use of DNA evidence in the 1990s, legal experts said. “For the first time, you had this airtight, scientific evidence cutting down convictions,” said Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University and death-penalty expert.
Also affecting the number of death sentences: the rise in “life-without-parole” penalties, which have been adopted by more than half the states since the 1990s.
Such sentences have presented prosecutors and juries with a viable alternative to the death penalty for particularly violent or heinous crimes.
In recent years, dozens of executions have been held up by severe shortages of lethal-injection drugs, triggered when manufacturers stopped supplying them to correctional facilities. In response, some states have obtained their own supplies from pharmacies, while others effectively have stopped executing people.
Some states have pressed forward with cocktails featuring new or untested drugs, with mixed success.
In 2014, executions in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona, using a sedative called midazolam, each took far longer than anticipated, and were marked by signs of struggle on the part of the inmate. As a result, executions in those states were stopped for months.
The lethal-injection problems prompted some states to consider reviving execution methods phased out years ago. Tennessee, in May, passed a bill to bring back the electric chair as a possible execution method in the event that lethal injection becomes unworkable. Officials elsewhere proposed using gas chambers or firing squads as alternatives to lethal injection.
Opponents also cite the cost of imposing the death penalty—which, due to lengthy appeals and pricey lawyers for inmates—can be burdensome to states. A few proponents, however, claim that some states have gone overboard in trying to avoid mistakes, often allowing frivolous legal filings and appeals.
Thirty-two states currently retain the power to sentence inmates to death.
But since 2007, the death penalty has been abolished in six states—Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico and New York. Governors in both Washington and Oregon have issued moratoriums on executions in recent years, citing concerns that the use of the death penalty is inconsistently administered.
A Gallup poll released in October, showed that 63% of Americans favor the death penalty for convicted murderers. That level of support has remained steady for the last several years, the survey said.
Write to Ashby Jones at ashby...@wsj.com
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http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/lethal-injection/number-death-sentences-executions-hit-new-lows-n269356
Number of Death Sentences and Executions Hit New Lows
The number of executions in the United States hit a 20-year low in 2014, a dip driven in part by lethal-injection drug shortages and legal battles stemming from botched procedures. Thirty-five death-row inmates in seven states were killed last year, the lowest number since 1994, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment. Executions peaked in 1999; there were 98 that year.
Oklahoma's bungled execution of Clayton Lockett in April and the protracted lethal injection of Dennis McGuire in Ohio in January brought attention to new drug protocols adopted by a number of states after some manufacturers stopped selling their products to put inmates to death. Investigations and lawsuits from other inmates have led to delays for others on death-row, although the pace hasn't slowed in Texas or Missouri.
Richard Dieter, the center's executive director, said as some of the litigation is resolved, the number of executions may rise next year — but he thinks that trend is temporary. Death sentences hit a 40-year low last year and have been in steep decline for the last two decades, plunging from 315 in 1994 to about 72 in 2014. "The realization that mistakes have been made, that innocent people are still being freed, has made juries hesistant," Dieter said. "They are willing to convict but not sentence to death. There is a demand for perfect proof, and so prosecutors are taking more plea bargains."
Seven death-row inmates were exonerated last year, the most since 2009.
A majority of Americans still support capital punishment. In a May poll by NBC News, 59 percent said they favor the death penalty as the ultimate punishment for murder, while 35 percent said they are opposed. That reflects the erosion of support since the 1990s, when more than 70 percent backed executions.
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http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-death-penalty-20141218-story.html
Capital punishment in U.S. continues its decline
Los Angeles Times
By David G. Savage contact the reporter
December 17, 2014
The death penalty continued its slow and steady two-decade decline this year, as fewer convicted murderers were sentenced to die and most executions were limited to just three states, according to a report to be released Thursday.
The number of new death sentences plummeted from 315 in 1996 to 72 as of Wednesday, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The relevancy of the death penalty in our criminal justice system is seriously in question when 43 out of the 50 states do not apply the ultimate sanction. - Richard Dieter, Death Penalty Information Center
The number of executions carried out has fallen sharply as well. This year, 35 convicts were put to death, compared with 98 in 1999. And whereas 20 states were carrying out executions in the 1990s, only seven did so this year.
"The relevancy of the death penalty in our criminal justice system is seriously in question when 43 out of the 50 states do not apply the ultimate sanction," said Richard Dieter, the center's executive director.
Most of the executions took place in Texas (10), Missouri (10) and Florida (8). The other states to carry out executions were Oklahoma (3), Georgia (2), Arizona (1) and Ohio (1).
Even in Texas, the number of new death sentences has fallen sharply, from 48 per year in the late 1990s to fewer than a dozen per year recently.
Experts say the trend reflects a steep drop in violent crime, a growing use of "life without parole" sentences for convicted killers and a skepticism over the death penalty itself.
Nationwide, there were about 10,000 fewer murders in recent years compared with the 1990s. The FBI reported 24,526 murders in 1993; last year there were 14,196.
Some prosecutors pursuing a murder case don't seek the death penalty because of the high cost of litigating such cases. Others are deterred by the need for absolute proof.
"DNA confirmed there were a lot of innocent people on death row, and judges and juries have become more cautious as a result," Dieter said.
Another key factor is the growing reliance on life-term prison sentences that include no option for parole. In the 1980s and beyond, jurors often said they decided in favor of a death sentence because they feared a murderer who was sentenced to "life in prison" would be released on parole in a decade or two. But since the 1990s, every state has allowed for life terms in prison with no possibility of parole.
Faced with that option, many jurors vote for a life sentence rather than death.
Kent Scheidegger, counsel for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento, said the drop in death sentences reflected the decline in murders. "The murder rate today is a bit more than half what it was in the mid-90s," he said.
He also said prosecutors were concentrating on the most aggravated murders. "In years past, you would sometimes see death sentences for simple cases of robbery-murder. You don't see that much any more," he said. "When you read of a new death sentence being rendered today, it is typically for a particularly horrific murder, which is exactly how the system is supposed to work."
California held its position as the nation's leader in sending convicts to death row, though their chances of being executed are remote. About 1 in 4 of the nation's condemned prisoners is held in California.
In October, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund counted 3,035 inmates nationwide facing death sentences. The states with the largest number were California (745), Florida (404), Texas (276) and Alabama (198).
California carried out its last execution in 2006, and in July, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney ruled the state's death penalty system unconstitutional because of the long delays in carrying out the sentences. The state has appealed the issue to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Dieter foresees a time in the next decade when executions become so rare and confined to so few states that the Supreme Court will declare the punishment unconstitutional. "It won't happen this year or next, but they could say it has becomes so unusual as to be outside the standards of decency," he said.
david....@latimes.com
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/17/executions-death-sentences-declining/20557375/
Report: Executions continue to decline in U.S.
Kevin Johnson
USA TODAY
December 17, 2014
Driven in part by continuing legal disputes related to lethal injection drugs and state moratoriums on the death penalty, the 35 people executed in the U.S. marks the fewest in two decades, according to a year-end report by the Death Penalty Information Center.
The center, which opposes capital punishment, also found that the 72 death sentences issued in 2014 represents the fewest in 40 years.
"What's going on here is that we are seeing capital punishment slipping into irrelevance as a criminal justice tool,'' said Richard Dieter, the center's executive director. "The country is re-thinking this as an effective remedy.''
The declining numbers come as several states and the federal government are locked in disputes over their use of lethal injection drugs. The state of Oklahoma halted executions for the remainder of the year after a botched execution in April. The federal government, involved in a legal challenge to its lethal injection protocol, has not used its execution chamber since 2003.
Perhaps most striking about the 2014 report, Dieter said, was that Texas—the nation's perennial leader in carrying out the death penalty—was no longer alone at the top after 17 years. It tied with Missouri for the most executions, with 10. Meanwhile, the seven states that carried out executions this year marked the lowest number in 25 years.
Connecticut state Rep. David Labriola, a Republican who helped lead an unsuccessful fight to maintain capital punishment in that state, believes there is strong national support for the death penalty, as long as it is applied fairly and efficiently.
But Labriola said there has been public "frustration'' with an often protracted appeal process and the costs associated with supporting the legal challenges of the condemned.
"It can take more than 20 years to resolve some of these cases,'' Labriola said. "I continue to support the death penalty because I believe there are some crimes so heinous, that is the only appropriate punishment. Had Adam Lanza not turned the gun on himself (after killing 26 in the 2012 Newtown, Conn., school massacre), he would have surely qualified for the death penalty.
"If you are going to have the death penalty,'' Labriola said, "it has to be a working death penalty.''
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http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/18/execution-deaths-more-gruesome
US executes fewer prisoners, but deaths are more brutal: report
An increase in botched executions highlight a year that had a sharp drop of state-sanctioned deaths
The Guardian
Ed Pilkington in New York
Thursday 18 December 2014 00.01 EST
When students of the US death penalty look back on the year 2014 they are likely to remember it as one of the most grotesque on record, punctuated by a series of botched executions in which prisoners writhed, gasped and groaned for lengthy periods on the gurney.
But the Death Penalty Information Center, a leading chronicler of capital punishment trends in the US, notes in its annual review published on Thursday that the year was also marked by the onward decline of the controversial practice. The 35 executions carried out in 2014 marked a 10% decline compared with the previous year, and a dramatic slump from the peak of 98 judicial killings in 1999.
Though many people around the world think of the death penalty as being an American foible, the annual report points out that it has receded into a rump of hardline states. All 35 executions were carried out by just seven states, and of those 80% were accounted for by just three states – Texas, Missouri and Florida.
Even Texas, long ground zero of the death penalty in America, the number of executions sharply declined this year, from 16 in 2013 to 10 in 2014. Only Missouri bucked the trend – it lethally injected 10 prisoners compared with just two the previous year, as it forged ahead with an aggressive new drive to carry out executions at a rate of almost one a month.
The number of new death sentences also showed a steep decline, falling to 72, the lowest number since the death penalty recommenced in the modern era in 1974. The center notes this was the fourth year in a row with fewer than 100 sentences, compared with figures above 100 for every year between 1974 and 2010.
“The relevancy of the death penalty in our criminal justice system is seriously in question when 43 out of our 50 states do not apply the ultimate sanction,” said Richard Dieter, the center’s executive director and author of the report. “The US will likely continue with some executions in the years ahead, but the rationale for such sporadic use is far from clear.”
Opponents of the death penalty will be heartened that its overall trajectory is steadily moving in their direction. But if 2014 is anything to go by, as capital punishment becomes less common, it also appears to be growing more extreme and arguably inhumane.
DPIC’s report highlights the string of botched executions that occurred through the year, starting in January with that of Dennis McGuire who gasped and snorted for 15 minutes in front of his horrified children. It was Ohio’s first – and critics said experimental – use of a new lethal drug combination.
Then in April, Oklahoma saw gruesome scenes of officials struggling and failing to find a vein in the death row inmate Clayton Lockett, who struggled for 43 minutes, much of it behind a curtain that prevented the media witnessing the events. New documents released this week unveiled new details of the tragedy, including blood splattering over the doctor who was trying to insert the IV.
The Guardian has joined the ACLU and Oklahoman news outlets in legally challenging the state’s refusal to allow full public access to the execution.
Arizona added its name to the grizzly list of death penalty states carrying out botched executions in July when it took almost two hours and 15 doses of drug to kill Joseph Wood http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/23/justice/arizona-execution-controversy/ .
Part of the reason for the apparent increase in executions that have gone wrong is the scramble for lethal injection drugs. The European boycott of medical drugs going to US prisons is now biting deeply, and in an attempt to circumvent it, many states have attempted to find new ever more unconventional supply routes.
Many states have also tried to avoid public scrutiny of their experimental new methods by passing secrecy laws designed to keep the identity of its suppliers hidden. The Guardian is involved in legal challenges to such secrecy in Arizona, Oklahoma, Missouri and Pennsylvania.
The other area highlighted in DPIC’s annual review are exonerations, with seven former death row inmates being freed in 2014 – the highest number since 2009.
The seven included brothers Henry McCollum and Leon Brown who were convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1984 when they were both teenagers. They were eventually exonerated 30 years later when the North Carolina Innocence Commission recovered crime-scene material which provided a positive match to a known sex offender living just a few feet from where the victim’s body was found.
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http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/12/18/executions-hit-20-year-low-in-us
Executions Hit 20-Year Low in U.S.
The death penalty may be dying after a dip in new sentences.
By Steven Nelson
U.S. News & World Report
Dec. 18, 2014 | 12:01 a.m. EST + More
Thirty-five people were executed in the U.S. in 2014 – the lowest number in 20 years – and a new report suggests the downward trend is likely to continue as the number of new death sentences plummets.
According to the report, released Thursday by the Death Penalty Information Center, 2014 will see fewer new death sentences – projected to total 72 – than any year since 1974.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily disallowed executions in the 1970s, the number of state-sanctioned killings peaked at 98 in 1999 before trending downward. The number of new death sentences plateaued in the mid-1990s, reaching 315 in 1994 and 1996 before falling.
“These executions [this year] are a reflection of cases from 15 years ago,” says Richard Dieter, the center’s executive director. “The trend is fewer death sentences around the country, and that’s going to mean fewer executions.”
The death penalty continues to have strong majority support among Americans, but less so than two decades ago.
Dieter says there are several factors that caused the drop in the number of executions this year. Among the most notable, three states – Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma – postponed executions after botched killings caused laborious, grisly deaths for inmates.
If those states get the go-ahead to continue implementing the death penalty, “There will be a spurt in executions,” Dieter says. But the surge likely would be temporary.
Other factors in the decline, Dieter says, include the option of life in prison without parole – only recently available in some states – and a number of high-profile exonerations.
This year, seven people sentenced to death had charges against them dismissed – the highest number since 2009, according to the center's report.
Texas, for the first time in 17 years, did not solely lead the nation in executions in 2014, instead tying with Missouri. Both executed 10 people. Florida place third with eight executions. Just four other states executed prisoners.
In addition to the projected record low, the most new death sentences – 14 – were issued in California, which has not carried out an execution since 2006.
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http://www.nationallawjournal.com/home/id=1202712734726/Executions-Continue-DecadesLong-Decline-With-Exceptions
Executions Continue Decades-Long Decline, With Exceptions
Marcia Coyle,
The National Law Journal
December 18, 2014
The number of death sentences and executions continued to decline in 2014, with a small handful of states bucking the decades-long trend.
The Death Penalty Information Center released its year-end summary Thursday of death penalty-related activity. The center found that new death sentences had reached their lowest level in 40 years, and that the number of executions was the fewest recorded in the past 20 years.
Here are the numbers behind the trends, according to the center's report:
Executions: 35 this year, down from 39 in 2013. The number has declined in 11 of the past 15 years.
Death sentences: 72 this year, down from 79 in 2013. This year's number is 77 percent less than the number in 1996, when there were 315.
Eighty percent of executions were carried out in three states: Texas (10 in 2014; 16 in 2013); Missouri (10 in 2014; two in 2013), and Florida (eight in 2014; seven in 2013). Georgia also doubled the number of its executions from one in 2013 to two this year. A total of seven states executed inmates in 2014, the fewest number of states in 25 years.
"The relevancy of the death penalty in our criminal justice system is seriously in question when 43 out of our 50 states do not apply the ultimate sanction,” Richard Dieter, the center's executive director and the author of the report, said in a written statement. "The United States will likely continue with some executions in the years ahead, but the rationale for such sporadic use is far from clear."
Dieter said executions have been put on hold in a number of states because of problems with the drug protocol for lethal injections. State officials halted executions in Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma following botched or prolonged procedures. There also has been controversy and litigation over some states' refusals to release information about the nature and source of the drugs they use.
The year also brought increased attention to mental illness and intellectual disabilities in death row inmates. The U.S. Supreme Court in Hall v. Florida rejected the state's standard of an IQ of 71 for determining intellectual disability and ineligibility for the death penalty. And an Ohio state task force has recommended a categorical exemption from the death penalty for people with mental illness.
The report also notes that seven men were freed from death row this year—the largest number since 2009—including three men in Ohio who were cleared of all charges 39 years after their convictions.
The nonprofit center’s funders include the Open Society Foundation and the MacArthur Justice Center. It’s declared mission is to promote "informed discussion" of the death penalty.
The full report can be found here.
Read more: http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202712734726/Executions-Continue-DecadesLong-Decline-With-Exceptions#ixzz3ME0s8zF7
--
Stefanie Faucher
Communications Director
8th Amendment Project
sfau...@8thamendment.org
Mobile 510.393.4549
8thamendment.org
Capital punishment in U.S. continues its decline
Los Angeles Times
By David G. Savage contact the reporter
December 17, 2014
The death penalty continued its slow and steady two-decade decline this year, as fewer convicted murderers were sentenced to die and most executions were limited to just three states, according to a report to be released Thursday.
The number of new death sentences plummeted from 315 in 1996 to 72 as of Wednesday, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The relevancy of the death penalty in our criminal justice system is seriously in question when 43 out of the 50 states do not apply the ultimate sanction. - Richard Dieter, Death Penalty Information Center
The number of executions carried out has fallen sharply as well. This year, 35 convicts were put to death, compared with 98 in 1999. And whereas 20 states were carrying out executions in the 1990s, only seven did so this year.
"The relevancy of the death penalty in our criminal justice system is seriously in question when 43 out of the 50 states do not apply the ultimate sanction," said Richard Dieter, the center's executive director.
Most of the executions took place in Texas (10), Missouri (10) and Florida (8). The other states to carry out executions were Oklahoma (3), Georgia (2), Arizona (1) and Ohio (1).
Even in Texas, the number of new death sentences has fallen sharply, from 48 per year in the late 1990s to fewer than a dozen per year recently.
Experts say the trend reflects a steep drop in violent crime, a growing use of "life without parole" sentences for convicted killers and a skepticism over the death penalty itself.
Nationwide, there were about 10,000 fewer murders in recent years compared with the 1990s. The FBI reported 24,526 murders in 1993; last year there were 14,196.
Some prosecutors pursuing a murder case don't seek the death penalty because of the high cost of litigating such cases. Others are deterred by the need for absolute proof.
"DNA confirmed there were a lot of innocent people on death row, and judges and juries have become more cautious as a result," Dieter said.
Another key factor is the growing reliance on life-term prison sentences that include no option for parole. In the 1980s and beyond, jurors often said they decided in favor of a death sentence because they feared a murderer who was sentenced to "life in prison" would be released on parole in a decade or two. But since the 1990s, every state has allowed for life terms in prison with no possibility of parole.
Faced with that option, many jurors vote for a life sentence rather than death.
Kent Scheidegger, counsel for the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento, said the drop in death sentences reflected the decline in murders. "The murder rate today is a bit more than half what it was in the mid-90s," he said.
He also said prosecutors were concentrating on the most aggravated murders. "In years past, you would sometimes see death sentences for simple cases of robbery-murder. You don't see that much any more," he said. "When you read of a new death sentence being rendered today, it is typically for a particularly horrific murder, which is exactly how the system is supposed to work."
California held its position as the nation's leader in sending convicts to death row, though their chances of being executed are remote. About 1 in 4 of the nation's condemned prisoners is held in California.
In October, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund counted 3,035 inmates nationwide facing death sentences. The states with the largest number were California (745), Florida (404), Texas (276) and Alabama (198).
California carried out its last execution in 2006, and in July, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney ruled the state's death penalty system unconstitutional because of the long delays in carrying out the sentences. The state has appealed the issue to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Dieter foresees a time in the next decade when executions become so rare and confined to so few states that the Supreme Court will declare the punishment unconstitutional. "It won't happen this year or next, but they could say it has becomes so unusual as to be outside the standards of decency," he said.
david....@latimes.com
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/17/executions-death-sentences-declining/20557375/
Report: Executions continue to decline in U.S.
Kevin Johnson
USA TODAY
December 17, 2014
Driven in part by continuing legal disputes related to lethal injection drugs and state moratoriums on the death penalty, the 35 people executed in the U.S. marks the fewest in two decades, according to a year-end report by the Death Penalty Information Center.
The center, which opposes capital punishment, also found that the 72 death sentences issued in 2014 represents the fewest in 40 years.
"What's going on here is that we are seeing capital punishment slipping into irrelevance as a criminal justice tool,'' said Richard Dieter, the center's executive director. "The country is re-thinking this as an effective remedy.''
The declining numbers come as several states and the federal government are locked in disputes over their use of lethal injection drugs. The state of Oklahoma halted executions for the remainder of the year after a botched execution in April. The federal government, involved in a legal challenge to its lethal injection protocol, has not used its execution chamber since 2003.
Perhaps most striking about the 2014 report, Dieter said, was that Texas—the nation's perennial leader in carrying out the death penalty—was no longer alone at the top after 17 years. It tied with Missouri for the most executions, with 10. Meanwhile, the seven states that carried out executions this year marked the lowest number in 25 years.
Connecticut state Rep. David Labriola, a Republican who helped lead an unsuccessful fight to maintain capital punishment in that state, believes there is strong national support for the death penalty, as long as it is applied fairly and efficiently.
But Labriola said there has been public "frustration'' with an often protracted appeal process and the costs associated with supporting the legal challenges of the condemned.
"It can take more than 20 years to resolve some of these cases,'' Labriola said. "I continue to support the death penalty because I believe there are some crimes so heinous, that is the only appropriate punishment. Had Adam Lanza not turned the gun on himself (after killing 26 in the 2012 Newtown, Conn., school massacre), he would have surely qualified for the death penalty.
"If you are going to have the death penalty,'' Labriola said, "it has to be a working death penalty.''
___
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/18/execution-deaths-more-gruesome
US executes fewer prisoners, but deaths are more brutal: report
An increase in botched executions highlight a year that had a sharp drop of state-sanctioned deaths
The Guardian
Ed Pilkington in New York
Thursday 18 December 2014 00.01 EST
When students of the US death penalty look back on the year 2014 they are likely to remember it as one of the most grotesque on record, punctuated by a series of botched executions in which prisoners writhed, gasped and groaned for lengthy periods on the gurney.
But the Death Penalty Information Center, a leading chronicler of capital punishment trends in the US, notes in its annual review published on Thursday that the year was also marked by the onward decline of the controversial practice. The 35 executions carried out in 2014 marked a 10% decline compared with the previous year, and a dramatic slump from the peak of 98 judicial killings in 1999.
Though many people around the world think of the death penalty as being an American foible, the annual report points out that it has receded into a rump of hardline states. All 35 executions were carried out by just seven states, and of those 80% were accounted for by just three states – Texas, Missouri and Florida.
Even Texas, long ground zero of the death penalty in America, the number of executions sharply declined this year, from 16 in 2013 to 10 in 2014. Only Missouri bucked the trend – it lethally injected 10 prisoners compared with just two the previous year, as it forged ahead with an aggressive new drive to carry out executions at a rate of almost one a month.
The number of new death sentences also showed a steep decline, falling to 72, the lowest number since the death penalty recommenced in the modern era in 1974. The center notes this was the fourth year in a row with fewer than 100 sentences, compared with figures above 100 for every year between 1974 and 2010.
“The relevancy of the death penalty in our criminal justice system is seriously in question when 43 out of our 50 states do not apply the ultimate sanction,” said Richard Dieter, the center’s executive director and author of the report. “The US will likely continue with some executions in the years ahead, but the rationale for such sporadic use is far from clear.”
Opponents of the death penalty will be heartened that its overall trajectory is steadily moving in their direction. But if 2014 is anything to go by, as capital punishment becomes less common, it also appears to be growing more extreme and arguably inhumane.
DPIC’s report highlights the string of botched executions that occurred through the year, starting in January with that of Dennis McGuire who gasped and snorted for 15 minutes in front of his horrified children. It was Ohio’s first – and critics said experimental – use of a new lethal drug combination.
Then in April, Oklahoma saw gruesome scenes of officials struggling and failing to find a vein in the death row inmate Clayton Lockett, who struggled for 43 minutes, much of it behind a curtain that prevented the media witnessing the events. New documents released this week unveiled new details of the tragedy, including blood splattering over the doctor who was trying to insert the IV.
The Guardian has joined the ACLU and Oklahoman news outlets in legally challenging the state’s refusal to allow full public access to the execution.
Arizona added its name to the grizzly list of death penalty states carrying out botched executions in July when it took almost two hours and 15 doses of drug to kill Joseph Wood http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/23/justice/arizona-execution-controversy/ .
Part of the reason for the apparent increase in executions that have gone wrong is the scramble for lethal injection drugs. The European boycott of medical drugs going to US prisons is now biting deeply, and in an attempt to circumvent it, many states have attempted to find new ever more unconventional supply routes.
Many states have also tried to avoid public scrutiny of their experimental new methods by passing secrecy laws designed to keep the identity of its suppliers hidden. The Guardian is involved in legal challenges to such secrecy in Arizona, Oklahoma, Missouri and Pennsylvania.
The other area highlighted in DPIC’s annual review are exonerations, with seven former death row inmates being freed in 2014 – the highest number since 2009.
The seven included brothers Henry McCollum and Leon Brown who were convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1984 when they were both teenagers. They were eventually exonerated 30 years later when the North Carolina Innocence Commission recovered crime-scene material which provided a positive match to a known sex offender living just a few feet from where the victim’s body was found.
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http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/12/18/executions-hit-20-year-low-in-us
Executions Hit 20-Year Low in U.S.
The death penalty may be dying after a dip in new sentences.
By Steven Nelson
U.S. News & World Report
Dec. 18, 2014 | 12:01 a.m. EST + More
Thirty-five people were executed in the U.S. in 2014 – the lowest number in 20 years – and a new report suggests the downward trend is likely to continue as the number of new death sentences plummets.
According to the report, released Thursday by the Death Penalty Information Center, 2014 will see fewer new death sentences – projected to total 72 – than any year since 1974.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily disallowed executions in the 1970s, the number of state-sanctioned killings peaked at 98 in 1999 before trending downward. The number of new death sentences plateaued in the mid-1990s, reaching 315 in 1994 and 1996 before falling.
“These executions [this year] are a reflection of cases from 15 years ago,” says Richard Dieter, the center’s executive director. “The trend is fewer death sentences around the country, and that’s going to mean fewer executions.”
The death penalty continues to have strong majority support among Americans, but less so than two decades ago.
Dieter says there are several factors that caused the drop in the number of executions this year. Among the most notable, three states – Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma – postponed executions after botched killings caused laborious, grisly deaths for inmates.
If those states get the go-ahead to continue implementing the death penalty, “There will be a spurt in executions,” Dieter says. But the surge likely would be temporary.
Other factors in the decline, Dieter says, include the option of life in prison without parole – only recently available in some states – and a number of high-profile exonerations.
This year, seven people sentenced to death had charges against them dismissed – the highest number since 2009, according to the center's report.
Texas, for the first time in 17 years, did not solely lead the nation in executions in 2014, instead tying with Missouri. Both executed 10 people. Florida place third with eight executions. Just four other states executed prisoners.
In addition to the projected record low, the most new death sentences – 14 – were issued in California, which has not carried out an execution since 2006.
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http://www.nationallawjournal.com/home/id=1202712734726/Executions-Continue-DecadesLong-Decline-With-Exceptions
Executions Continue Decades-Long Decline, With Exceptions
Marcia Coyle,
The National Law Journal
December 18, 2014
The number of death sentences and executions continued to decline in 2014, with a small handful of states bucking the decades-long trend.
The Death Penalty Information Center released its year-end summary Thursday of death penalty-related activity. The center found that new death sentences had reached their lowest level in 40 years, and that the number of executions was the fewest recorded in the past 20 years.
Here are the numbers behind the trends, according to the center's report:
Executions: 35 this year, down from 39 in 2013. The number has declined in 11 of the past 15 years.
Death sentences: 72 this year, down from 79 in 2013. This year's number is 77 percent less than the number in 1996, when there were 315.
Eighty percent of executions were carried out in three states: Texas (10 in 2014; 16 in 2013); Missouri (10 in 2014; two in 2013), and Florida (eight in 2014; seven in 2013). Georgia also doubled the number of its executions from one in 2013 to two this year. A total of seven states executed inmates in 2014, the fewest number of states in 25 years.
"The relevancy of the death penalty in our criminal justice system is seriously in question when 43 out of our 50 states do not apply the ultimate sanction,” Richard Dieter, the center's executive director and the author of the report, said in a written statement. "The United States will likely continue with some executions in the years ahead, but the rationale for such sporadic use is far from clear."
Dieter said executions have been put on hold in a number of states because of problems with the drug protocol for lethal injections. State officials halted executions in Arizona, Ohio and Oklahoma following botched or prolonged procedures. There also has been controversy and litigation over some states' refusals to release information about the nature and source of the drugs they use.
The year also brought increased attention to mental illness and intellectual disabilities in death row inmates. The U.S. Supreme Court in Hall v. Florida rejected the state's standard of an IQ of 71 for determining intellectual disability and ineligibility for the death penalty. And an Ohio state task force has recommended a categorical exemption from the death penalty for people with mental illness.
The report also notes that seven men were freed from death row this year—the largest number since 2009—including three men in Ohio who were cleared of all charges 39 years after their convictions.
The nonprofit center’s funders include the Open Society Foundation and the MacArthur Justice Center. It’s declared mission is to promote "informed discussion" of the death penalty.
The full report can be found here.
Read more: http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202712734726/Executions-Continue-DecadesLong-Decline-With-Exceptions#ixzz3ME0s8zF7
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Stefanie Faucher
Communications Director
8th Amendment Project
sfau...@8thamendment.org
Mobile 510.393.4549
8thamendment.org
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