DPIC 2022 Year End Report: Commutation of Oregon Death Row Headlines U.S. Death-Penalty Decline in a Year Marred by Botched Executions

The death penal­ty con­tin­ued its long-term decline in the U.S. in 2022, as Oregon com­mut­ed its death row and new death sen­tences and pub­lic sup­port for the death penal­ty remained near 50-year lows. But per­haps more dra­mat­i­cal­ly than any­thing else, the for­ti­eth anniver­sary of lethal injec­tion could be known as ​“the Year of the Botched Execution,” the Death Penalty Information Center said in its 2022 Year End Report.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown cleared the state’s death row on December 13, com­mut­ing the sen­tences of the 17 pris­on­ers fac­ing poten­tial exe­cu­tion in the state and instruct­ing the depart­ment of cor­rec­tions to begin dis­man­tling the state’s exe­cu­tion cham­ber. It was the sec­ond largest blan­ket death-row com­mu­ta­tion in the past 50 years, trail­ing only Illinois Governor George Ryan’s grant of clemen­cy to 167 death sen­tenced pris­on­ers in January 2003. It also marked the fifth straight year in which a state either abol­ished the death penal­ty, imposed a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, and/​or com­mut­ed death row. 

In a year that fea­tured incen­di­ary polit­i­cal adver­tis­ing that drove the public’s per­cep­tion of ris­ing crime to record highs, near­ly every mea­sure of change — from new death sen­tences imposed and exe­cu­tions con­duct­ed to pub­lic opin­ion polls and elec­tion results — point­ed to the con­tin­u­ing dura­bil­i­ty of the more than 20-year sus­tained decline of the death penal­ty in the United States. For the eighth con­sec­u­tive year, few­er than 50 new death sen­tences were imposed in the United States and few­er than 30 exe­cu­tions were car­ried out in 2022. Excluding the pan­dem­ic years of 2020 and 2021, the 20 death sen­tences in 2022 were the fewest since cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment resumed in the U.S. in 1972 and the 18 exe­cu­tions were the fewest since 1991. At the end of 2022, 37 U.S. states had either abol­ished the death penal­ty or had not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in more than a decade.

When states did sched­ule exe­cu­tions, the results were prob­lem­at­ic. Thirty-three of the 51 sched­uled exe­cu­tions (65%) did not go for­ward. Seven of the 20 exe­cu­tions that were attempt­ed were vis­i­bly prob­lem­at­ic — an aston­ish­ing 35% — as a result of exe­cu­tion­er incom­pe­tence, fail­ures to fol­low pro­to­cols, or defects in the protocols themselves. 

“After 40 years, the states have proven them­selves unable to car­ry out lethal injec­tions with­out the risk that it will be botched. The fam­i­lies of vic­tims and pris­on­ers, oth­er exe­cu­tion wit­ness­es, and cor­rec­tions per­son­nel should not be sub­ject­ed to the trau­ma of an exe­cu­tion gone bad,” said Robert Dunham, DPIC’s Executive Director.

The death penal­ty con­tin­ued to be geo­graph­i­cal­ly iso­lat­ed with only six states — Alabama, Arizona, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas — car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions. Oklahoma (5) and Texas (5) per­formed more exe­cu­tions than any oth­er states; togeth­er they con­duct­ed more than half of the year’s exe­cu­tions. Oklahoma’s deci­sion to sched­ule 25 exe­cu­tion dates over the next two years marked the state as an out­lier, even among states that reg­u­lar­ly schedule executions.

Twelve states imposed new death sen­tences this year. Florida imposed four new sen­tences, Alabama imposed three, and California imposed two. No coun­ties imposed more than one new death sen­tence in 2022.

On December 13, 2022, Governor Brown in Oregon com­mut­ed the cap­i­tal sen­tences of all 17 death row pris­on­ers and instruct­ed the depart­ment of cor­rec­tions to begin dis­man­tling the state’s exe­cu­tion cham­ber. Thirty-sev­en states — near­ly three quar­ters of the coun­try — have now abol­ished the death penal­ty or not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in more than a decade.

The vast major­i­ty of those exe­cut­ed in 2022 were indi­vid­u­als with sig­nif­i­cant vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties. At least 13 of the peo­ple exe­cut­ed in 2022 had one or more of the fol­low­ing impair­ments: seri­ous men­tal ill­ness (8); brain injury, devel­op­men­tal brain dam­age, or an IQ in the intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled range (5); chron­ic seri­ous child­hood trau­ma, neglect, and/​or abuse (12). Three pris­on­ers were exe­cut­ed for crimes com­mit­ted in their teens. At least four of the peo­ple exe­cut­ed this year were military veterans.

Alabama, Arizona, and Texas had botch­es when exe­cu­tion teams were unable to set IV lines, lead­ing to can­celled exe­cu­tions or delays of hours. On July 28, 2022, exe­cu­tion­ers in Alabama took three hours to set an IV line before putting Joe James Jr. to death, the longest botched lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tion in U.S. his­to­ry. Executions were put on hold in Alabama, Idaho, Ohio, Tennessee, and South Carolina when the states were not able to car­ry out execution protocols.

Public opin­ion polls in 2022 showed sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment remained near his­toric lows, even amid ris­ing per­cep­tions of crime. A poll released in February found that Americans’ sup­port for the death penal­ty was even low­er when asked about the class­es of defen­dants who are most fre­quent­ly sub­ject to the pun­ish­ment. Democrats, Republicans, and Independents by mar­gins of more than 30 per­cent­age points opposed the use of the death penal­ty against peo­ple with severe men­tal ill­ness, brain dam­age, or intel­lec­tu­al impair­ments, and against vet­er­ans with post­trau­mat­ic stress disorder.

At the bal­lot box, can­di­dates who had imposed or promised to con­tin­ue exe­cu­tion mora­to­ria won elec­tion in California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania, and reform pros­e­cu­tors were elect­ed or reelect­ed in coun­ties across the country.