The Death Penalty in 2006: Year End Report

The use of the death penal­ty in the U.S. con­tin­ued to decline in 2006, con­sis­tent with a pat­tern over the past six years. Executions dropped to their low­est lev­el in 10 years as many states grap­pled with prob­lems relat­ed to wrong­ful con­vic­tions and the lethal injec­tion process. The num­ber of death sen­tences and the size of death row are also decreas­ing. And for the first time, the Gallup Poll report­ed that more peo­ple sup­port­ed a sen­tence of life with­out parole over the death penalty. 

In 2006, New Jersey became the first juris­dic­tion to enact a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions through leg­is­la­tion; it appoint­ed a study com­mis­sion to review its cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. In Illinois, a mora­to­ri­um on all exe­cu­tions con­tin­ued for the sev­enth year. New York’s death penal­ty, over­turned in 2004, was not rein­stat­ed. North Carolina and California, while not halt­ing exe­cu­tions, began leg­isla­tive stud­ies of their cap­i­tal punishment systems.