In 2002, still 71 executions
The Washington Post
Tuesday, December 31, 2002
iht.com
The year 2002 saw an end to the dramatic decline
in executions that took place during the previous
two years in the United States. According to data
from the Death Penalty Information Center, the
states put 71 convicts to death this year, up
slightly from the 66 executions in 2001 but still
markedly below the recent peak of 98 executions
in 1999.
For opponents of the death penalty cheered by
the trend of decline - a drop that coincided with
new scrutiny of capital punishment prompted by
DNA exonerations - this year's uptick, although
slight, may seem like a discouraging reversal. The
reality is more complicated. Behind the increase
in overall executions lies evidence of the
continued marginalization of a punishment that
should have been banned long ago.
Fewer states (13) conducted executions this year
than in any year since 1993. Texas alone, which
executed 33 people, accounted for nearly half the
state-sponsored killing. The next state in number
of executions, Oklahoma, put to death only seven
people, less than a quarter of Texas's total.
Outside the South, where 61 of the executions
took place, only three states (California, Ohio and
Missouri) executed anyone. Moreover, the number
of new death sentences has declined significantly,
and the growth of death rows nationwide finally
has leveled off. In other words, outside of a few
states, the penalty remains in decline.
This trend of regional concentration of capital
punishment augurs well for those who believe, as
we do, that the death penalty should be
abolished. Assembling a national consensus for
eliminating it is impossible today. Policymakers in
states such as Texas, Missouri and Virginia are
committed to it, and most voters continue to
support capital punishment. But if other states
start permitting the death penalty to slip into
disuse or nearly so, death no longer will seem so
obvious an option for the criminal justice system.
And if states with nominal death penalties begin
striking them from their books (a step none of the
38 death penalty states has yet taken), the
isolation of those states that carry out executions
will grow further.
This irreversible punishment is capriciously
applied under the best of circumstances, and in
many cases it is a reckless gamble that guilt is
certain. An array of states legally endorse its use,
but that base is something of a mirage; a few
states collectively account for the overwhelming
majority of all executions. The more clearly
isolated they become, the greater the pressure for
reform will be.
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