Executions in the United States fell to historic lows in 2020, despite the federal government's "unprecedented six-month execution spree" in the latter half of the year, according to a year-end analysis of the death penalty released Wednesday by the Death Penalty Information Center (article available here).
There were 17 executions in the United States over the past year, down from 22 in 2019 and the fewest since 1991. Additionally, the judicial system imposed 18 new death sentences this year, the fewest in more than four decades.
While the COVID-19 pandemic was responsible for delaying some executions and death penalty-eligible trials, the Death Penalty Information Center, which issued Wednesday's report, said the nation was on pace for a near-record low even before the disruption caused by the pandemic.
"At the end of the year, more states and counties had moved to end or reduce death-penalty usage, fewer new death sentences were imposed than in any prior year since capital punishment resumed in the U.S. in 1970s, and states carried out fewer executions than at any time in the past 37 years," said Robert Dunham, DPIC's executive director and the lead author of "The Death Penalty in 2020: Year End Report."
The federal government began conducting executions of federal inmates for the first time in 17 years in July, beginning with the lethal injection of Daniel Lewis Lee on July 14. Another nine federal executions followed, culminating with that of Alfred Bourgeois on Friday.
The federal government carried out the majority of executions in 2020, followed by Texas with three, and Alabama, Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee with one each.