On December 18, the Death Penalty Information Center released its lat­est report, ​“The Death Penalty in 2012: Year End Report,” on devel­op­ments in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the past year. The report not­ed the num­ber of new death sen­tences in 2012 was the sec­ond low­est since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1976, rep­re­sent­ing a near­ly 75% decline since 1996, when there were 315 new death sen­tences. Only nine states car­ried out exe­cu­tions in 2012, equal­ing the fewest num­ber of states to do so in 20 years. In 2012, use of the death penal­ty was clus­tered in a few states. Just four states (Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Arizona) were respon­si­ble for over three-quar­ters of exe­cu­tions nation­wide. Death sen­tences were also pri­mar­i­ly imposed in a few areas, with four states (Florida, California, Texas, and Pennsylvania) account­ing for almost two-thirds of the nation’s death sen­tences. ​“Capital pun­ish­ment is becom­ing mar­gin­al­ized and mean­ing­less in most of the coun­try,” said Richard Dieter, DPIC’s Executive Director and the author of the report. ​“In 2012, few­er states have the death penal­ty, few­er car­ried out exe­cu­tions, and death sen­tences and exe­cu­tions were clus­tered in a small num­ber of states. It is very like­ly that more states will take up the ques­tion of death penal­ty repeal in the years ahead.”

(Read ​“The Death Penalty in 2012: Year End Report,” Dec. 18, 2012; Read DPIC’s Press Release; View a video about the report). See oth­er DPIC Reports.

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