The Death Penalty in 2009: Year End Report

DPIC’s Year End Report: Death Sentences in U.S. Lowest Since Death Penalty Reinstated in 1976 

11 States Considered Ending Capital Punishment during 2009 Budget Crunch

(Washington, D.C.) The coun­try is expect­ed to fin­ish 2009 with the fewest death sen­tences since the U.S. Supreme Court rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty in 1976, accord­ing to a report released today by the Death Penalty Information Center. Eleven states con­sid­ered abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty this year, a sig­nif­i­cant increase in leg­isla­tive activ­i­ty from pre­vi­ous years, as the high costs and lack of mea­sur­able ben­e­fits asso­ci­at­ed with this pun­ish­ment trou­bled law­mak­ers. Read ​“The Death Penalty in 2009: Year End Report” at http://​www​.death​penal​ty​in​fo​.org/.

“The annu­al num­ber of death sen­tences in the U.S. has dropped for sev­en straight years and is 60% less than in the 1990s,” said Richard Dieter, the report’s author and DPIC’s exec­u­tive direc­tor. ​“In the last two years, three states have abol­ished cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and a grow­ing num­ber of states are ask­ing whether it’s worth keep­ing. This entire decade has been marked by a declin­ing use of the death penal­ty.” There were 106 death sen­tences in 2009 com­pared with a high of 328 in 1994.

The decline in death sen­tences was par­tic­u­lar­ly notice­able in Texas and Virginia, the two lead­ing states in car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions. During the 1990s, Texas aver­aged 34 death sen­tences per year and Virginia aver­aged 6. This year, Texas had 9 death sen­tences and Virginia had 1.

As states were forced to cut essen­tial ser­vices this year, many lead­ers con­clud­ed that the death penal­ty was a waste­ful gov­ern­ment pro­gram that should be con­sid­ered for repeal. Policymakers found it hard to jus­ti­fy lay­ing off teach­ers and police offi­cers while main­tain­ing a cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem that is nev­er or seldom used.

New Mexico became the 15^th state to abol­ish the death penal­ty as Governor Richardson called the alter­na­tive of life in prison with­out parole ​“a strong pun­ish­ment” and observed that the cost of the death penal­ty was ​“a valid rea­son [for repeal] in this era of aus­ter­i­ty and tight bud­gets.” The Connecticut leg­is­la­ture vot­ed to end the death penal­ty before the gov­er­nor vetoed the bill. Legislation to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment passed in one house of the leg­is­la­ture in Colorado and Montana and came close to pas­sage in Maryland. This trend is expect­ed to con­tin­ue as the eco­nom­ic crisis persists

Nine men who were sen­tenced to death were exon­er­at­ed in 2009, the sec­ond high­est num­ber of exon­er­a­tions since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed. The total num­ber of exon­er­a­tions since 1973 is now 139. The pub­lic has become skep­ti­cal about the government’s abil­i­ty to avoid mis­takes and get the death penal­ty right. Those sen­ti­ments trans­late into an increas­ing reluc­tance to hand down death sen­tences on the part of courts and juries.

Executions rose in 2009 com­pared to last year, attrib­uted large­ly to the lift­ing of the de fac­to mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions dur­ing 2008 while the Supreme Court con­sid­ered the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of lethal injec­tion. There were 52 exe­cu­tions this year, with no more sched­uled, and 37 in 2008. The num­ber of exe­cu­tions this year was 47 per­cent less than ten years ago. Eighty-sev­en per­cent of exe­cu­tions this year were car­ried out in the south and over half of those were in Texas.

“The rise in exe­cu­tions in 2009 was expect­ed as states were back­logged with cas­es from the nation­wide mora­to­ri­um. The coun­try con­tin­ues to move away from the death penal­ty, as evi­denced by the declin­ing rate of death sen­tences and the move­ment in sev­er­al states to repeal it,” said Dieter

Also this year, a nation­wide poll of police chiefs showed that the death penal­ty is at the bot­tom of pri­or­i­ties among those with expe­ri­ence in law enforce­ment. The chiefs did not believe the death penal­ty act­ed as a deter­rent, and they rat­ed it as one of the most inef­fi­cient uses of tax­pay­er mon­ey in fight­ing crime. Challenges to the death penal­ty came from all quar­ters, includ­ing for­mer Texas Governor Mark White and con­ser­v­a­tive strate­gist Richard Viguerie, who expressed doubts about the reli­a­bil­i­ty of this governmental program.

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The Death Penalty Information Center is a non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion serv­ing the media and the pub­lic with analy­sis and infor­ma­tion on issues con­cern­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The Center was found­ed in 1990 and pre­pares in-depth reports, issues press releas­es, con­ducts brief­in­gs for jour­nal­ists, and serves as a resource to those work­ing on this issue. The Center is wide­ly quot­ed and con­sult­ed by all those con­cerned with the death penal­ty. To arrange an inter­view with DPIC’s Executive Director, Richard Dieter, or for more infor­ma­tion about the Year End Report, please con­tact Corinne Gearhart at (202) 289‑2275 or cgearhart@​deathpenaltyinfo.​org.