Government and the U. Military retain the death penalty. In addition, the District of Columbia has abolished the death penalty. Government has declared a moratorium on executions. In , the Supreme Court of Rhode Island held that the state's statute imposing a mandatory death sentence for an inmate who killed a fellow prisoner was unconstitutional.
The legislature repealed the law and removed it from the state criminal code in In , the New York Court of Appeals held that a portion of the state's death penalty law was unconstitutional. In , the court ruled that its prior holding applied to the last remaining person on the state's death row. The legislature has voted down attempts to restore the statute. In March , New Mexico voted to abolish the death penalty.
However, the repeal was not retroactive, leaving two people on the state's death row. But many pharmaceutical companies refuse to supply the required drugs, which has led to states authorising deaths that are potentially far less humane.
This has been the case in South Carolina, which in May instituted a law requiring death row inmates to choose between being put to death by electric chair or firing squad. Electrocution takes place in eight states and gas chambers are authorised in seven. Three states — Delaware, New Hampshire, and Washington — still permit hanging.
The frequency of people put to death is also markedly different across the country. Texas has put people to death since , according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Virginia comes in at a distant second, with executions in that time period, followed by Oklahoma with , Florida with 99, and Missouri with Exacerbating the inconsistency, federal death penalties may or may not be carried out at all, depending on the views of the president or attorney general of the time.
Many argue that the constitutional concept of equal protection under the law is deeply compromised under this system. Those weighty concerns deserve careful study and evaluation by lawmakers.
No additional countries banned the death penalty in for the second year in a row, but Amnesty says that countries have either abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. At least 2, death sentences were passed in 56 countries in But in some cases the death sentences will be commuted, where countries are reluctant to enforce the punishment. In recent years the number of countries which carry out executions has gradually declined.
Amnesty includes five non UN-member countries in their figures. Read more from Reality Check. Send us your questions. Image source, Getty Images.
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