The number of executions in 2008 marked a 14-year low, continuing a declining trend since a high reached in 1999, according to a new report.
Thirty-seven people were executed in 2008, compared to 42 in 2007, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that opposes capital punishment. The high was reached in 1999, when 98 people were executed.
With 18 executions, Texas again had the most executions, followed by Virginia with four.
The center also found that the number of new death sentences remained at a 30-year low. Citing data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the report said that 115 death sentences were issued in 2007, the lowest number since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The center estimated the number of death sentenced in 2008 at 111.
In 2008, more than 25 executions were stayed, four inmates were exonerated and four had their sentences changed to life in prison.
The report pointed out that executions were on hold between September 2007 and April 2008 as the U.S. Supreme Court considered issues raised about the lethal injection method. Only nine states carried out executions in 2008, with Ohio as the only nonsouthern state.
In April, the moratorium was lifted when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld lethal injection in the case of Baze v. Rees, No. 07-5439.
“We were surprised that the surge in executions that we expected after Baze did not happen,” Richard Dieter, the center’s executive director, said in a news release. “Courts, legislatures and the public are increasingly skeptical about the death penalty, whether those concerns are based on innocence, inadequate legal representation, costs, or a general feeling that the system isn’t fair or accurate.”
The eight-page report is available online.
