Today, December 18, 2012, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) released its year-end report, The Death Penalty in 2012. According to the report, the number of new death sentences in 2012 was the second lowest since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Several states, including North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina, did not impose any new death sentences this year.
For the second year in a row, 43 executions took place in the United States – just four states (Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Arizona) accounted for more than 75% of executions in 2012.
The report notes that for the eighth consecutive year, Texas executed more inmates than it sentenced to death, “foreshadowing a decline in executions in the future.” Texas carried out 15 executions this year; nine individuals were sentenced to death.
Read the press release from DPIC.
Read coverage by CNN, which also features a video clip of Joel Osteen, Senior Pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, discussing his views on the death penalty.