The Death Penalty in 2008: Year End Report

Marginalization of the Death Penalty Deepens With 95% of Executions in the South

Economic Concerns Bog Down Capital Punishment System

Executions resumed in 2008 after a de fac­to mora­to­ri­um was effec­tive­ly lift­ed by the Supreme Court fol­low­ing its deci­sion uphold­ing lethal injec­tion. But only the South returned to reg­u­lar exe­cu­tions, account­ing for 95% of exe­cu­tions car­ried out in the coun­try in 2008. Almost half of the exe­cu­tions were in Texas. In some states, such as California, Maryland, Delaware and North Carolina, the lethal injec­tion issue remains unset­tled, and no executions occurred.

The 37 exe­cu­tions this year marked a 14-year low and con­tin­ued a down­ward trend after exe­cu­tions peaked at 98 in 1999. Last year there were 42 exe­cu­tions. New death sen­tences also remained at their 30-year low. The Bureau of Justice Statistics recent­ly released their count of death sen­tences for 2007. The 115 sen­tences in 2007 was the low­est num­ber since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1976. In 2008, DPIC’s research esti­mates 111 new death sen­tences, anoth­er decrease in a down­ward trend that began at the start of this decade. Overall, the annu­al num­ber of death sen­tences has dropped by about 60% since the 1990s, when it was close to 300. 

Since exe­cu­tions had been on hold for almost eight months (Sept. ​’07-April ​’08) as the Supreme Court con­sid­ered the lethal injec­tion issue, it was expect­ed there could be a surge of exe­cu­tions in 2008, depend­ing on the Court’s deci­sion in Baze v. Rees. When the Court upheld Kentucky’s lethal injec­tion process in Baze, many exe­cu­tion dates were set. However, stays of exe­cu­tion were fre­quent as the tra­di­tion­al prob­lems with the death penal­ty returned. Only 9 states car­ried out exe­cu­tions in 2008, and only one of those was out­side of the south – Ohio.

The lat­est Gallup Poll (October 2008) indi­cat­ed that the pub­lic still sup­ports the death penal­ty in the­o­ry. Support for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was 64%, a decline from the 69% sup­port in 2007. The high point for endorse­ment of the death penal­ty came in 1994, when 80% sup­port­ed it. When the death penal­ty is com­pared with prac­ti­cal alter­na­tives such as a sen­tence of life in prison with no parole, sup­port is much low­er, with most polls indi­cat­ing pub­lic sup­port for true life sen­tences to be equal to or greater than sup­port for the death penalty.

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