Capital Punishment In US: Executions Hit 25-Year Low In 2016, Study Shows

The number of U.S. executions in 2016 was 20, the lowest since 1991, according to a study by the Death Penalty Information Center, which monitors capital punishment.

While 31 states in the U.S. have the death penalty, only five held executions in 2016. Georgia carried out the most at nine while Texas was next at seven.

The number of new death sentences in 2016 is expected to hit 30, a low not seen since the U.S. Supreme Court declared existing death penalty statutes unconstitutional in 1972, the report said. That figure is down by more than 90 percent from a recent high of 315 in 1996.

“America is in the midst of a major climate change concerning capital punishment. While there may be fits and starts and occasional steps backward, the long-term trend remains clear,” said Robert Dunham, DPIC’s Executive Director and the author of the report.

“For the first time in more than 40 years, no state imposed ten or more death sentences; only five states imposed more than one death sentence. California imposed the most (9) followed by Ohio (4), Texas (4), Alabama (3) and Florida (2).” the report said.

The report also said that though capital punishment was voted in this year in three states – California, Nebraska and Oklahoma — “prosecutors in four of the 16 counties that impose the most death sentences in the U.S. were defeated by candidates who expressed personal opposition to the death penalty or pledged to reform their county’s death penalty practices.”

However, media reports said Tuesday the California Supreme Court has halted the "implementation of all provisions of Proposition 66" that was voted in through the ballot in November.

The constitutionality of hundreds of death sentences in states such as Arizona, Delaware, Florida, and Oklahoma was also called into question due to legal developments in courts, the report said in its conclusion. It added that about “60 percent of the 20 people executed in 2016 showed significant evidence of mental illness, brain impairment, and/or low intellectual functioning,” and explained through case studies that the list of those executed suffered from inadequate representation or insufficient judicial review.

Support for capital punishment is also at a 40-year low, according to national public opinion polls such as Pew research and Galup that were cited in the report.