An annual conducted by the Death Penalty Information Center shows a significant decline in 2018 in the use of the death penalty nationwide. This is as it should be — the nation is turning away from the barbaric practice of killing its people as punishment.
In 2018, 25 people were executed, marking the fourth year in a row the United States has had fewer than 30 executions. That’s down dramatically from the peak of 98 executions we saw in 1999. Death sentencing, too, has followed this downward trend. Just over 40 people were sentenced to death across the country — compared to the record of 315 people sent to death row in 1996.
The most monumental stride forward transpired in Washington, when the state became the 20th to reject the death penalty outright. The Washington Supreme Court in October ruled that the state’s death penalty was tainted by racial bias and arbitrariness, and thus prohibited under the state constitution.
Thirteen other states have effectively abandoned the death penalty in practice, though the law allowing the use of capital punishment remains on the books. The governors of Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Colorado continue to bar executions on their watch, and 10 other states, along with the federal government and the military, in over 10 years.
Public support for the death penalty . Fewer than 50 percent of Americans believe the death penalty is fair. The reasons are varied. Perhaps the most stirring one is that it is an irrevocable sentence in a broken system, a shameful relic of our history of lynching and racial terror.
Public support has also dwindled because people have recognized that innocent people remain on death row across the country. Two men were exonerated and released from death row in 2018, bringing the total exonerations in the modern death penalty period, from the time the death penalty was reinstated in 1972, to a staggering 164. Vicente Benavides Figueroa was after almost 26 years on death row. Clemente Javier Aguirre was after 12 years on Florida’s death row.
The record in 2018 also shows that the use of the death penalty in the modern era remains isolated to a handful of states, highlighting its arbitrariness.
Jurors imposed the death penalty in just over 40 cases across the country. The great majority of these new death sentences were handed down in courts in four states: Texas, Florida, California, and Ohio. No one was sent to death row in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, or Virginia — states that have historically led in death sentencing.
Executions were also geographically isolated. Of the 25 executions this year, 13 were in Texas alone. Only seven other states carried out an execution this year. While Texas remains the country’s top executioner, jurors and a wave of reform-minded district attorneys in the Lone Star State are also turning away from the death penalty. Texas jurors rejected the death penalty in eight cases that ultimately ended in six life sentences and two mistrials.
Only one person was sentenced to death in Harris County, which includes Houston — a remarkable drop from years past. Harris County sentenced so many people to death in the past that it was known as “the capital of capital punishment.” Because so many of these people still await execution on Texas’ death row, it is still the county responsible for most of Texas’ death row population.
In another example of the changing tide, in February, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott granted clemency to Thomas Whitaker. This was the first grant of clemency in Texas in over a decade. It came the surviving victim and family member of Whitaker’s crime did not want to see him executed.
Despite all the good news, the death penalty continues to be — and will remain — marred by racial disparities. All seven people sentenced to death in Texas this year were people of color. Gov. Abbott rejected clemency for Christopher Young, a Black man convicted of killing a man of South Asian descent — despite the fact that, like Whitaker (who is white, as were his victims), the victim’s family member had called for mercy.
So while reform is brewing, it is inconsistent, and it is costing lives and reinforcing unequal justice.
With these developments in mind, in 2019 we must continue to expose the injustices of this punishment and fight it until we can finally say that the death penalty is gone for good. For the 2,500 people who remain on death row, that cannot come soon enough.
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PodcastDec 2024
Capital Punishment
Can Commuting the Row Be Biden's Real Legacy? Herman Lindsey and Cassy Stubbs Discuss With W. Kamau BellCan Commuting the Row Be Biden's Real Legacy? Herman Lindsey and Cassy Stubbs Discuss With W. Kamau Bell
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Press ReleaseDec 2024
Capital Punishment
Over 130 Civil and Human Rights Organizations Call on President Biden to Commute Federal Death SentencesOver 130 Civil and Human Rights Organizations Call on President Biden to Commute Federal Death Sentences
WASHINGTON – More than 130 civil and human rights organizations, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International USA, Southern Poverty Law Center, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, issued a letter to President Biden today, urging him to commute the sentences of people on federal death row before he leaves office. The letter highlights the moral and legal failings of the death penalty in the United States and stresses the urgency of action to prevent the potential resurgence of federal executions under an incoming Trump administration. The groups call on Biden to fulfill his campaign promise to address the irrevocably broken federal death penalty and to “bring America into a new era of moral leadership.” President Biden was the first presidential candidate to openly oppose the death penalty, and his administration issued a moratorium on federal executions. With 40 men still on death row, however, the letter emphasizes that commuting federal death sentences is the only irreversible action President Biden can take to prevent the incoming administration from attempting another execution spree. "President Biden has an opportunity to make history by addressing the racist and unjust federal death penalty system and keep an early campaign promise he made to the American people,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU. “Commuting the sentences of those on death row would help end the death penalty once and for all and prevent a second execution spree by President Trump. Trump’s first act of political theater ended in the execution of 13 people. President Biden shouldn’t allow Trump to repeat that travesty." In Trump’s final months in office, his administration executed 13 people in rapid succession, more than any administration in over 120 years. The Trump administration also amended the federal execution protocol which opened the door to more brutal methods of execution, including death by firing squad, electrocution, and nitrogen hypoxia, an untested and torturous method. Below are additional comments from: Paul O’Brien, executive director, Amnesty International USA: “President-elect Trump has promised to restart and accelerate the federal death machine, just as he did in his last administration. In the span of only 6 months, the Trump administration executed more people than the 10 previous presidential administrations combined. The executions carried out in his first term demonstrated to the world how the federal death penalty is fundamentally broken and that this ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment should be abolished forever. We should take Trump at his word when he says he plans to repeat this horrific killing spree, and Biden must do what he can now to prevent it.” Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel, Legal Defense Fund: “Since our founding, LDF has been unwavering in its fight to abolish the death penalty and eliminate racial discrimination from our criminal legal system. The death penalty is rooted in slavery, lynchings, and white vigilantism and historically weaponized against people of color. From the Groveland Four in 1949 to many capital cases today, Black people are disproportionately impacted by the ultimate punishment. Commuting the sentences of the 40 individuals on federal death row is an unprecedented opportunity for President Biden to cement his commitment to remedying injustice by exercising executive clemency.” Margaret Huang, president and CEO, The Southern Poverty Law Center: “The death penalty is rooted in a deep history of racialized violence. To this day, race is still the biggest predictor of who gets sentenced to death, with Black people accounting for nearly 40% of those on federal death row, despite representing less than 12% of the adult population. And fully 70% of those on federal death row are from the South. Our nation, and particularly the communities that we serve in the Deep South, cannot achieve true racial justice while the death penalty remains in practice.” Joia Erin Thornton, executive director, FLOCC (Faith Leaders of Color Coalition): “President Biden should commute all federal death sentences because doing so would acknowledge and help redress the racial bias built into the federal death penalty system, allow government resources to be redirected to policies that actually make our communities safer, and allow the families of victims and incarcerated persons to focus on healing instead of living in legal limbo.” This letter is one of more than a dozen letters released today from hundreds of stakeholders from across the political and faith spectrums calling on President Biden to commute all federal death sentences, including Black pastors, former corrections officials, business leaders, current and former prosecutors, families who have lost loved ones to homicide, mental health advocates, and many more. All of the letters can be found here. -
News & CommentaryNov 2024
Capital Punishment
Biden Must Use Final Months in Office to Commute Federal Death SentencesBiden Must Use Final Months in Office to Commute Federal Death Sentences
In our series on how Biden can use the lame duck period to secure civil liberties and civil rights, we examine how Biden can combat President-elect Trump’s plans to greatly expand the death penalty and execute every person on the federal row. -
Press ReleaseNov 2024
Capital Punishment
National Security
Court Rules Signed Plea Agreements with Three of the 9/11 Defendants Are Valid and Must Go Into EffectCourt Rules Signed Plea Agreements with Three of the 9/11 Defendants Are Valid and Must Go Into Effect
WASHINGTON — A U.S. military court has agreed that the plea agreement reached with ACLU client Khalid Shaikh Mohammad back in August is valid and must go into effect. The judge’s decision comes three months after Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, overruled prosecutors and Brig. General Susan Escallier, the Guantánamo military commission’s convening authority, and revoked the signed plea agreement. In exchange for a guilty plea to all counts, the U.S. government agreed to life imprisonment instead of the death penalty for Khalid Shaikh Mohammad and two other defendants. The military judge’s decision follows litigation by the three defendants to enforce their agreement with the government. The negotiated plea process allows family members to get answers to long-held questions about the attacks directly from the defendants and, at sentencing, make statements about the tragic impact on them and their loved ones. The military judge has said he will next schedule a hearing for the guilty pleas to be entered. Since 2008, through its John Adams Project, the ACLU has provided capital defense support for detainees facing the death penalty in the military commissions, spending over $12.5 million to provide experienced capital defenders, mitigation specialists, investigators, and experts to the under-resourced military defense teams. Our efforts exposed unfairness, secrecy, and the ongoing role of torture in the Guantanamo military commissions, making clear that the commissions are a complete failure. The following is a statement from Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU: “By reinstating the plea agreements, Col. Matthew N. McCall rightly recognizes that Defense Secretary Austin stepped out of bounds. We are finally back at the only practical solution after nearly two decades of litigation. “The government's decision to settle for life imprisonment instead of seeking the death penalty in the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was always the right call. For too long, the U.S. has repeatedly defended its use of torture and unconstitutional military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay. As a nation, we must move forward with the plea process and sentencing hearing that is intended to give victim family members answers to their questions. They deserve transparency and finality about the events that claimed their loved ones. “This plea agreement further underscores the fact that the death penalty is out of step with the fundamental values of our democratic system. It is inhumane, inequitable, and unjust. “We also urge the U.S. government to quickly relocate the men cleared for transfer, and finally end all indefinite detentions and unfair trials at Guantánamo.”