Only One In Four Scheduled Executions Were Carried Out In 2017

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Anders Hagstrom

State governors and courts intervened to stop 71 percent of scheduled executions in 2017, with just 23 scheduled executions being carried out nationwide.

The numbers, from a year-end study from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), are evidence of a national movement away from the death penalty in 2017. An October Gallup poll showed that national support for the death penalty was at its lowest point since 1972, with just 55 percent expressing support for the execution of convicted murderers. New death sentences were also down this year, below even 2016’s record lows. Three counties in California, Nevada, and Arizona accounted for more than 30 percent of all new death sentences.

“Across the political spectrum, more people are coming to the view that there are better ways to keep us safe than executing a handful of offenders selected from a random death-penalty lottery. There will be times when numbers fluctuate – particularly following historic highs or lows – but the steady long-term decline in the death penalty since the 1990s suggests that in most of the country, the death penalty is becoming obsolete,” DPIC Executive Director Robert Dunham said in a statement.

Southern states continue to lead the country in executions, however. Texas, Arkansas, Florida, and Alabama made up for 17 of the year’s 23 executions. Riverside, Calif., issued five new death sentences in 2017, more than any other county. It was followed closely by Clark, Nev., and Maricopa, Ariz., with four and three new death sentences respectively. Aside from these three, no county in the country issued more than a single death penalty.

The Gallup poll showed a 5 percent drop in favorability among the public. Surprisingly, Republican support for the death penalty fell by an even more stark 10 points since 2016. The low support is only matched by the death penalty’s 50 percent favorability in 1972, just before the Supreme Court briefly ruled the death penalty unconstitutional.

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