Group says death penalty irrelevant
WASHINGTON — Only nine states executed death row inmates in 2012, and the number of new death sentences, at 78, was nearly the lowest number of new sentences since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center’s year- end report, released Tuesday.
The punishment also came under attack this year from advocates in California, who narrowly lost a death penalty repeal campaign headlined by supportive district attorneys, judges, victims’ families and former prison officials.
Based on these trends, Richard Dieter, executive director of the center, said “the death penalty appears to be an increasingly irrelevant component of our criminal justice system. It still exists, but as far as using it as a response to crime, it’s not the norm and it’s not carried out uniformly across the country.”
While the trend of the last 10 years shows that death sentences and executions are declining, one state did act this year to speed up its death penalty process. In May, South Dakota passed legislation limiting death row inmates to one post-conviction appeal, which must be filed within two years of their convictions. The state executed two people this year, its first executions since 2007.
North Carolina also could buck the trend in the coming year. Republicans now are in control of the governor’s mansion and both legislative chambers. They have vowed to repeal the state’s Racial Justice Act, which allows death row inmates to challenge their death sentences based on statewide statistical evidence that could show racial bias played a role in their sentencing or in jury selection. The state’s unique Racial Justice Act opened the door to appeals for nearly all of the state’s 165 death row inmates and has stopped all executions in North Carolina. Republicans and district attorneys have called it a “back-door deal to end the death penalty.”
A repeal of the act potentially could lead to new executions in the state, which has not carried out an execution in six years.