logo English
  • English Français Español العرببية 中文 Русский فارسی
Contact Us
  • Follow us:
  •  
    • News
      • Latest news Special issues Newsletter
    • Get involved
      • Global campaigns Tools Become a member Networks Activists Alerts Jobs Contact Us
    • Facts and figures
      • Worldwide database Library
    • About Us
      • Presentation History How we work Member organizations Legal information
    • Member access
  •  
  •  
  • Homepage DPIC Report on the 2019 Death Penalty Usage in the US
  •  
    • DPIC Report on the 2019 Death Penalty Usage in the US Report

      DPIC Report on the 2019 Death Penalty Usage in the US

      Article by Dinda Royhan published on December 20th, 2019

      A year-end report by the Death Penalty Information Center highlights the continuing trend towards abolition with New Hampshire’s latest abolition, California’s moratorium, and the near-record low numbers of executions.

      twitter facebook

    • A year-end report published on 17 December 2019 by the Death Penalty Information Center highlights the death penalty usage in the US, public opinion, federal death penalty, and problematic executions.

      While the trend towards abolition continued in 2019, marked by California imposing a moratorium, New Hampshire abolishing death penalty, and other states further limiting the circumstances to impose death penalty, the report equally highlights the persisting problems of death penalty in the US.

      Progress Towards Abolition

      As recorded and projected by DCIP, the use of death penalty remained near historic lows this year with a total of 22 executions, between 35 and 37 new death sentences, and 2,656 people on death row throughout the country.

      Of these, more than one third (34.1%) of all people on death row in the USA have their executions on halt under a governor-moratorium. California is the latest state to do so on 13 March 2019, following the Governor Gavin Newsom’s announcement that racial discrimination, lack of deterrence value, and the high cost of capital punishment are signs of the “failure” of death penalty. This significant move has put California with the biggest death row population (729 as of 2019) on a similar boat as Colorado, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.

      Another remarkable news comes from New Hampshire, which becomes the 21st state to abolish the death penalty on 30 May 2019. Rep. Renny Cushing, a sponsor of the bill, quoted the importance of voices of murder victims’ family members, law enforcement, and the people that echo the objection towards death penalty.

      Federal Death Penalty and Judicial Error

      Despite the significant progress towards abolition that that DCIP has reported in 2019, the abolitionist movement in the US still has a lot to work on. On 25 July 2019, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its intention to reintroduce federal death penalty after a 16-year hiatus. This sudden move has raised serious questions on the rulemaking procedures to adopt the execution protocol and has been followed by a federal lawsuit. On 20 November, executions scheduled for December 2019 and January 2020 were halted by a Federal Court, and on 6 December, the United States Supreme Court denied an application by the U.S. Department of Justice to lift the federal court injunction blocking the federal government from carrying out executions.

      On state level, “this year’s executions did not represent the worst of the worst crimes and offenders, but the most vulnerable defendants and those whose trials and appeals were the least reliable,” DPIC wrote. 19 out of the total 22 prisoners executed this year had either one or more of the following: serious mental illness, chronic childhood trauma, or brain injury/intellectual disabilities.

      As is the case with issues of innocence that stood out in 2019, with four men exonerated after having spent more than 40 years in prison such as Clifford Williams, Jr. and Charles Ray Finch. Additionally, executions of those with strong likelihood of innocence, such as Domineque Ray, further demonstrates the concern. This highlights the fact that judicial error continues to happen and death penalty as irrecoverable punishment faces the risk of executing an innocent person.

      Read the full report here.

    • Keywords
    • Statistics Country/Regional profiles
    • Other Articles
    • The Commonwealth of Virginia Abolishes the Death PenaltyGood news The Commonwealth of Virginia Abolishes the Death Penalty
    • Armenia ratifies international treaty for irreversible abolition of the death penaltyProtocol Armenia ratifies international treaty for irreversible abolition of the death penalty
    • Recapping the UN Crime Congress in KyotoAdvocacy Recapping the UN Crime Congress in Kyoto
  • logo footer
  • Legal information
    Contrat Creative Commons
  • World Coalition Against The Death Penalty
    Contact Us
  • 69 rue Michelet
    93100 Montreuil
    France