On December 15, the Death Penalty Information Center released its lat­est report, ​“The Death Penalty in 2011: Year End Report,” on sta­tis­tics and trends in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the past year. The report not­ed that new death sen­tences dropped to 78 in 2011, mark­ing the first time since cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was rein­stat­ed in 1976 that the coun­try has pro­duced less than 100 death sen­tences in a year. It rep­re­sents a 75% decline since 1996, when there were 315 new death sen­tences. California, which has the coun­try’s largest death row, saw its death sen­tences drop by more than half this year — 10 com­pared with 29 in 2010. Only 13 states car­ried out exe­cu­tions in 2011, 74% of which were in the South. Only 8 states car­ried out more than one exe­cu­tion. Texas led the coun­try with 13 exe­cu­tions, but that num­ber rep­re­sents a 46% decrease from 2009, when there were 24 exe­cu­tions. ​“This year, the use of the death penal­ty con­tin­ued to decline by almost every mea­sure,” said Richard Dieter, DPIC’s Executive Director and the report’s author. ​“Executions, death sen­tences, pub­lic sup­port, the num­ber of states with the death penal­ty all dropped from pre­vi­ous years. Whether it’s con­cerns about unfair­ness, exe­cut­ing the inno­cent, the high costs of the death penal­ty, or the gen­er­al feel­ing that the gov­ern­ment just can’t get it right, Americans moved fur­ther away from cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in 2011.”

(Read ​“The Death Penalty in 2011: Year End Report,” December 15, 2011; Read DPIC’s Press Release.) See Sentencing and Executions in 2011. See also pre­vi­ous DPIC Reports.

Citation Guide