I recently wrote a column for The Center Square about the ongoing trend across the country, including in conservative states, of prosecutors and juries turning against the death penalty:
Given the recent spate of executions, it may surprise you to learn that the increase is a false indicator of the state of the death penalty in America. Most of those executions took place many years, in some cases decades, after the individual had been convicted. These executions actually represent the past more than the present as a remnant of our nation’s former affinity for capital punishment.
A more accurate barometer of America’s death penalty today is the actions taken by those our society asks to render verdicts in capital punishment trials – jurors, ordinary citizens responsible for deciding if someone will be sentenced to die for their crimes.
In recent years, new death sentences have reached near-record lows with juries more and more opting for life instead of death. Nationwide in 2024, there were 26 new death sentences, compared to more than 300 per year in the mid-1990s.
So, despite the number of recent executions, the record shows that capital punishment is losing its grip on America and nothing underscores this fact better than the trends in historically conservative states.
In Oklahoma, it has been three years since a jury has issued a new death sentence. In Arkansas, it has been six years. In Kansas, it is nine years. And in Indiana, it has been more than a decade without a jury rendering a verdict of death.
