The Death Penalty Information Center has released its annu­al report on the sta­tus of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the U.S. at the end of 2005. The report notes a dra­mat­ic drop in death sen­tences to the low­est lev­el in 30 years. The year showed an increas­ing reliance on the sen­tence of life-with­out-parole as an alter­na­tive to the death penal­ty.

New York’s leg­is­la­ture refused to restore the death penal­ty after its statute was declared uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, leav­ing life with­out parole as the pun­ish­ment for mur­der.

Texas became the 37th out of 38 death penal­ty states to adopt life with­out parole as a sen­tenc­ing alter­na­tive in cap­i­tal cas­es.

In the Supreme Court, fur­ther restric­tions were placed on thedeath penal­ty as juve­niles were exempt­ed and the Court found race bias in jury selec­tion and inef­fec­tive­ness of coun­sel ignored by low­er courts.

Read the report.
Read DPIC’s press release about the report.

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