A year and half after the repeal of capital punishment in Connecticut, death sentences nationwide are near record lows. That’s according to a report released today by the non-profit Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.
Richard Dieter authored the report. "The decline in the use of the death penalty is continuing," he said, "and it's a marked decline from about the year 2000, with a 75 percent drop in death sentences, [and an] over 50 percent drop in executions."
This year, Maryland became the sixth state in six years to abolish the death penalty. Like Connecticut, Maryland’s law affects only future crimes, leaving in place the sentences of the inmates currently on that state’s death row.
Connecticut’s legislation makes life in prison without the possibility of parole the state’s harshest punishment, but ten inmates still face execution in the state. A decision by the Connecticut Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the state's law is expected next spring. Dieter called this “a new legal area.”
The courts have yet to fully address whether there's unequal protection in eliminating the death penalty for everyone in the future, but not for those who were sentenced at an earlier date.
Two states, Texas and Florida, were responsible for the majority of America’s executions in 2013. Texas had 16. Florida had seven.
