DPIC 2020 MID-YEAR REVIEW: Pandemic and Continuing Historic Decline Produce Record-Low Death Penalty Use

New death sen­tences and exe­cu­tions were at his­toric lows in the first half of 2020, the Death Penalty Information Center report­ed in its 2020 Mid-Year Review. The report, released July 2, attrib­uted the record-low num­bers to the com­bined effects of the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic and a con­tin­u­ing broad nation­al decline in the use of capital punishment.

The report indi­cat­ed that, even before the pan­dem­ic, the U.S. was poised for its sixth con­sec­u­tive year with 50 or few­er new death sen­tences and 30 or few­er exe­cu­tions. At the mid­point of 2020, there have been only 13 new death sen­tences, imposed in sev­en states, and six exe­cu­tions car­ried out by five his­tor­i­cal­ly high-exe­cu­tion states. Florida (4), California (3), and Texas (2) had imposed mul­ti­ple new death sen­tences, but only Texas (with 2) had car­ried out more than one exe­cu­tion. (To enlarge the map of 2020 death sen­tences, click here.)

Colorado became the 22^nd U.S. state to abol­ish the death penal­ty, and Governor Jared Polis com­mut­ed the death-sen­tences of the three pris­on­ers remain­ing on the state’s death row. Louisiana and Utah joined the list of twelve death-penal­ty states that have not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion for more than a decade. Two more death-row pris­on­ers were exon­er­at­ed, and courts issued orders set­ting the stage for anoth­er, bring­ing to 169 the num­ber of peo­ple in the U.S. exon­er­at­ed from wrong­ful con­vic­tions and death sen­tences since 1973.

As the U.S. Supreme Court refused to inter­cede in the fed­er­al government’s sec­ond attempt to resume fed­er­al exe­cu­tions, pub­lic sup­port for the death penal­ty con­tin­ued to decline. A May 2020 nation­al Gallup poll found a record-low per­cent­age of U.S. adults now believe that the death penal­ty is a moral­ly acceptable punishment.

State courts con­tin­ued to have a major impact on the course of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. In a deci­sion with ram­i­fi­ca­tions for more than 140 death penal­ty cas­es, the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down a leg­isla­tive attempt to retroac­tive­ly repeal the state’s Racial Justice Act. At the same time, new appointees to the Florida Supreme Court over­turned estab­lished pro­ce­dur­al safe­guards in three death penal­ty cas­es, includ­ing aban­don­ing case prece­dent that required a unan­i­mous jury rec­om­men­da­tion for death before a tri­al judge could impose the death penal­ty. The court’s deci­sion in State v. Poole could retroac­tive­ly reim­pose dozens of death sen­tences that pre­vi­ous­ly had been overturned.