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Von Drehle on the DPIC Report

By Steve Hall

I want to single out David Von Drehle's post on the DPIC report for Time, "Death Penalty Use and Support Near Record Lows, Report Finds." Perhaps no statistic better illustrates the decline in the use of the death penalty than the fact that no death sentences ? zero ? were imposed by Virginia's courts in 2010. The commonwealth is a bastion of capital punishment, second only to Texas in the frequency of executions. Missouri, which ranks fifth in the number of executions in the modern era, also sent no new inmates to death row. Experts offer a number of explanations for the diminished use of the death penalty in the United States. DPIC's annual report, published on Tuesday, (see www.deathpenaltyinfo.org), points to at least four factors: And, an additional excerpt from the fourth factor: Uneven, and unpredictable, application: The use of the death penalty varies widely by region...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on December 21, 2010 (boomark / email).