State executions were are at the lowest level in 24 years in 2015, according to new figures released on Wednesday.
A total of 28 executions happened this year, says a report by the Death Penalty Information Center. That’s the lowest number since 1991, where there were 14 executions.
“The use of the death penalty is becoming increasingly rare and increasingly isolated in the United States,” Robert Dunham, who authored the report, said. “These are not just annual blips in statistics, but reflect a broad change in attitudes about capital punishment across the country.”
The annual report also states that new death sentences imposed in 2015 are at their lowest since 1973— when states began enacting new capital sentencing statutes in response to the U.S. Supreme Court declaring all existing death penalty statutes unconstitutional.
Nearly two-thirds of 2015’s new death sentences were imposed in the same 2% of counties responsible for more than half of all U.S. death sentences in the past.
Texas, Missouri and Georgia accounted for 86% of executions in 2015.
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