Death row: fewer executions

US: Forty-two people have been executed in the US this year, the lowest number since 1994 and fewer than half as many as in 1999. That year the total was 98 - the highest in the modern era of the death penalty.

There have been no executions since September 25th, as more than a dozen death row inmates received stays of execution after the Supreme Court decided to hear a challenge in January to lethal injection, the dominant mode of execution.

In addition, projections show there will have been only 110 death sentences this year, five fewer than 2006 and 60 per cent below the peak of 276 in 1999, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre.

The centre's year-end report also hailed New Jersey's decision to abolish capital punishment. "2007 will be known as the year executions came to a temporary halt and as the year of concrete legislative action reconsidering the death penalty," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the centre, which opposes capital punishment.

The report noted that only 10 states held executions this year and 26 occurred in one state: Texas. 

© 2007 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times