US executions edge up in 2017 but stay at decades’ low

AUSTIN, Texas, United States (Reuters) — US executions and new death sentences rose slightly in 2017 from a year ago but remained the lowest in decades as capital punishment has declined in the country, a survey released on Thursday showed.

The United States had 23 executions so far in 2017, with no more scheduled for the year. This is up slightly from 20 last year, the lowest since 1991, but far fewer than the record of 98 in 1999, according to the study from the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit capital punishment monitor.

For the past several years more states have offered life in prison without parole as an alternative sentence.

Legal battles over death penalty protocols and pharmaceutical companies banning sales of drugs for lethal injections due to ethical concerns have also caused executions to drop.

“The long-term trend seems consistent. It looks as though we are going to remain with a comparatively low number of executions and a comparatively low number of new death sentences,” Robert Dunham, the center’s executive director, said in a telephone interview.

Four inmates were exonerated from death row in 2017, bringing the total since 1973 to 160, the report said.

Since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, there have been 1,465 executions, with 545 in Texas, the most of any state.

While 31 states have the death penalty, Texas and Arkansas accounted for about half of all US executions this year.