The Death Penalty in 2010: Year End Report

DPIC’s Year End Report: Executions Down 12% Nationwide, 29% in Texas; Death Sentences Near Historic Lows

2010 Election Results Confirm Poll Finding Majority Favor Alternative Punishments and Will Support Politicians Who Vote for Repeal of the Death Penalty

(Washington, D.C.) The coun­try expe­ri­enced a 12 per­cent decrease in exe­cu­tions in 2010 com­pared to 2009 and a more than 50 per­cent drop com­pared to 1999, accord­ing to a report released today by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). Texas had 29 per­cent few­er exe­cu­tions in 2010 than the previous year

DPIC projects that the num­ber of new death sen­tences will be 114 for 2010, remain­ing near last year’s num­ber of 112, which was the low­est num­ber since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1976. Death sen­tences declined in all four regions of the coun­try over the past ten years, with a 50 per­cent decrease nation­wide when the cur­rent decade is com­pared to the 1990s.

“Whether it’s con­cerns about the high costs of the death penal­ty at a time when bud­gets are being slashed, the risks of exe­cut­ing the inno­cent, unfair­ness, or oth­er rea­sons, the nation con­tin­ued to move away from the death penal­ty in 2010,” said Richard Dieter, DPIC’s Executive Director and the report’s author.

Although the recent elec­tions brought a dra­mat­ic shift in polit­i­cal alliances, can­di­dates who ques­tioned the death penal­ty were elect­ed across the coun­try, includ­ing gov­er­nors in California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Kansas, and Illinois.

For exam­ple, Jerry Brown and Kamala Harris were elect­ed as gov­er­nor and attor­ney gen­er­al of California, despite heavy TV ads attack­ing them as death penal­ty oppo­nents. Daniel Malloy, who oppos­es the death penal­ty, was elect­ed gov­er­nor of Connecticut in the midst of a high-pro­file cap­i­tal tri­al. As its new gov­er­nor, Kansas elect­ed con­ser­v­a­tive Sam Brownback, who has expressed moral reser­va­tions about capital punishment.

“This year’s elec­tion results con­firm polling data that sug­gests oppos­ing the death penal­ty is an accept­able posi­tion for elect­ed offi­cials and can­di­dates. Voters hold oth­er issues, such as the econ­o­my and jobs, as much high­er pri­or­i­ties,” Dieter said.

In a poll con­duct­ed by Lake Research Partners this year, there was strong bi-par­ti­san sup­port for doing every­thing pos­si­ble to pre­vent the exe­cu­tion of inno­cent peo­ple: at least 80 per­cent of Republicans, Democrats, Conservatives, Moderates and Liberals all sup­port­ed that premise. 

In the same poll, a clear major­i­ty (61 per­cent) of the pub­lic favored some form of life impris­on­ment and only 33 per­cent sup­port­ed the death penal­ty as the pun­ish­ment for mur­der. A plu­ral­i­ty of vot­ers in death penal­ty states said it would make no dif­fer­ence in their vote if a rep­re­sen­ta­tive sup­port­ed repeal of the death penal­ty. A major­i­ty (62 per­cent) said either it would make no dif­fer­ence (38 per­cent) or they would be more like­ly to vote for such a rep­re­sen­ta­tive (24 percent).

In Texas, evi­dence emerged of crit­i­cal errors in two cas­es where exe­cu­tions had already occurred (Cameron Willingham and Claude Jones). In addi­tion, Anthony Graves was exon­er­at­ed from Texas’ death row and the pros­e­cu­tor acknowl­edged, ​“We found not one piece of cred­i­ble evi­dence that links Anthony Graves to the com­mis­sion of this cap­i­tal mur­der … He is an innocent man.”

Only 12 states car­ried out exe­cu­tions in 2010, most­ly in the South, and only sev­en states car­ried out more than one exe­cu­tion. Since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1976, 82 per­cent of the exe­cu­tions have been in the South. California has not had an exe­cu­tion in almost 5 years, and the same is true for North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and many oth­er states that rarely car­ry out the death penalty.

(The Mississippi Attorney General has request­ed an exe­cu­tion to be set for December 29, but the court has not respond­ed to this request, and it appears unlike­ly to occur. This exe­cu­tion, if it were to occur, would change the total num­ber of exe­cu­tions in 2010.) 

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Death Penalty Information Center is a non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion serv­ing the media and the pub­lic with analy­sis and infor­ma­tion on issues con­cern­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. DPIC was found­ed in 1990 and pre­pares in-depth reports, issues press releas­es, con­ducts brief­in­gs for the media, and serves as a resource to those work­ing on this issue. DPIC is wide­ly quot­ed and con­sult­ed by all those con­cerned with the death penalty.

Read a sum­ma­ry of media cov­er­age here.