CNA Staff, Dec 7, 2023 / 14:05 pm
New data indicates that a majority of U.S. states are shifting away from imposing the death penalty on prisoners, with few states this year ordering death sentences and even fewer carrying executions out.
Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN), a group that works “to end the use of the death penalty” around the United States, said in a press release this month that data from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) showed “a majority of states (29) have now either abolished capital punishment or paused executions by executive action.”
The DPIC’s 2023 annual report revealed that five states executed people this year, while seven states sentenced people to death. A total of 24 people were executed this year, while 21 were sentenced to death.
DPIC data show that executions in the U.S. rose sharply after the Supreme Court in 1976 reinstated the death penalty in the United States. They peaked in 1999 with nearly 100 executions and have been on a mostly unbroken downward trajectory since then, though 2023’s two dozen executions were up from 18 the year before.