In a recent front-page arti­cle in the New York Times, Joshua Marquis, the dis­trict attor­ney in Clatsop County, Oregon, and a vice pres­i­dent of the National District Attorneys Association, indi­cat­ed that most pros­e­cu­tors with expe­ri­ence in death penal­ty cas­es are ambiva­lent about it: ​“Any sane pros­e­cu­tor who is involved in cap­i­tal lit­i­ga­tion will real­ly be ambiva­lent about it,” said Marquis, who has long sup­port­ed the death penal­ty. According to the Times, he said the fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims suf­fered need­less anguish dur­ing what could be decades of lit­i­ga­tion and mul­ti­ple retri­als. ​“We’re see­ing few­er exe­cu­tions,” Mr. Marquis added. ​“We’re see­ing few­er peo­ple sen­tenced to death. People real­ly do ques­tion cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The whole idea of exon­er­a­tion has real­ly pen­e­trat­ed pop­u­lar cul­ture.”

The arti­cle also not­ed that 62% of the coun­try’s exe­cu­tions this year occurred in only one state – Texas – and that 40 out of the 50 states had no exe­cu­tions in 2007.

(A. Liptak, ​“U.S. Disparity in Executions Grows as Texas Bucks Trend,” N.Y. Times, Dec. 26, 2007.) See New Voices and DPIC’s 2007 Year End Report.

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