Death Penalties Decrease, Opinions Shift
Death sentences are at their lowest level in decades.
The Death Penalty Information Center, a group based in Washington, reported that the number of death sentences, which had remained at about 300 a year in the 1990s, began to drop steadily in 1999 and has declined almost 60 percent since then.
At the Justice Department, the Bureau of Statistics reported last week that there were 128 death sentences in 2005, down from 138 the year before. While the department study does not include an estimate for 2006, the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes the death penalty and tracks cases closely, says the number for this year will be about 114.
Why the drop?
Defense lawyers, prosecutors, and groups that study the application of the death penalty all say there are several reasons for the trend. Among them are increased publicity about cases other than murder in which DNA testing resulted in freeing people who had wrongly been convicted of crimes, producing skepticism about the reliability of verdicts; recent Supreme Court decisions requiring that juries be told when life in prison without possibility of parole is an option, and improved legal representation for capital defendants, including a sharp increase in using specialists to develop arguments for mitigation.
Mitigation specialists assist defense lawyers by investigating and presenting evidence to persuade juries to spare the defendant’s life.
But, there's another factor. Public opinion.
A Gallup poll earlier this year showed that for the first time, Americans were almost evenly split when asked to choose which is a better penalty for murder, a death sentence or a life sentence without possibility of parole. Until recently, the public had overwhelmingly responded in favor of the death penalty.
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