USA: U.S. EXECUTIONS NEAR A 25-YEAR LOW

October 24, 2016: The U.S. is on track for its fewest executions in a quarter century, Pew Research Center reported.
Seventeen inmates have been executed so far this year, according to a database maintained by the Death Penalty Information Center. Three additional executions are scheduled for this year. If all three proceed as planned, the year’s 20 executions will be the fewest since 1991, when 14 were recorded. The U.S. has executed at least 28 people in each year since 1992. Five states – Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Texas – account for the 17 completed and three scheduled executions this year. This represents the fewest states to carry out executions in any year since 1983.
In 1999, by comparison, 20 states conducted executions, Pew reported. One reason for the national decline in executions has been a decrease in Texas, which is scheduled to execute eight inmates this year, a 20-year low. Texas has long been the nation’s leader in executions, carrying out nearly five times as many as any other state since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. During that span, Texas carried out 538 executions, compared with 112 in Oklahoma and 111 in Virginia. (Source: hdnews.net, 24/10/2016)