The Incredible Shrinking Death Penalty
Wednesday December 17, 2008
Related: Christianity and the Death Penalty
The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) has released its 2008 report. Executions and death sentences are down, which is no surprise given the moratorium on lethal injections that lasted until the Supreme Court's April ruling in Baze v. Rees, but two salient facts stand out.
First, the death penalty is growing less popular. In 1994, Gallup estimated that 80% of Americans supported capital punishment; the figure has dropped steadily until this year, where support has dropped to 64%. The hard work of anti-death penalty activists such as Sister Helen Prejean has not been in vain.
Second, the death penalty is becoming an almost uniquely Southern institution, supported in states with notably rural demographics. In 2008, fully 95% of executions took place South of the Mason-Dixon line--and the other 5% took place in the Appalachian states of Kentucky and Ohio.
We're a long way from death penalty abolition, but the way Americans look at the death penalty has visibly changed--and much of this change took place under a president who had previously presided over more executions as governor of Texas than any other governor in U.S. history. Could a President Barack Obama, who has expressed grave concerns about the failure rate of capital punishment and nominated an anti-death penalty attorney general, bring us even closer to the goal of living in a country that doesn't execute prisoners?
The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) has released its 2008 report. Executions and death sentences are down, which is no surprise given the moratorium on lethal injections that lasted until the Supreme Court's April ruling in Baze v. Rees, but two salient facts stand out.
First, the death penalty is growing less popular. In 1994, Gallup estimated that 80% of Americans supported capital punishment; the figure has dropped steadily until this year, where support has dropped to 64%. The hard work of anti-death penalty activists such as Sister Helen Prejean has not been in vain.
Second, the death penalty is becoming an almost uniquely Southern institution, supported in states with notably rural demographics. In 2008, fully 95% of executions took place South of the Mason-Dixon line--and the other 5% took place in the Appalachian states of Kentucky and Ohio.
We're a long way from death penalty abolition, but the way Americans look at the death penalty has visibly changed--and much of this change took place under a president who had previously presided over more executions as governor of Texas than any other governor in U.S. history. Could a President Barack Obama, who has expressed grave concerns about the failure rate of capital punishment and nominated an anti-death penalty attorney general, bring us even closer to the goal of living in a country that doesn't execute prisoners?
Comments
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