"Texas executions, death sentences continue to decline," is the title of Mike Ward's report in today's Austin American-Statesman.
Executions in Texas, which has operated the busiest death chamber in the United States for years, have fallen to their lowest level in 15 years, new statistics showed Thursday.
In fact, Texas' new death sentences — which account for 30 percent of executions nationally — remained at an all-time low set last year as more juries imposed life without parole instead.
Victim rights advocates said the decline can be traced to an overall decrease in crime and concerns about the cost of litigating executions, while death penalty opponents attributed it to increasing public discomfort with executions amid concern about wrongful convictions and discrimination against racial minorities.
According to Texas Department of Criminal Justice statistics, 13 convicts were executed in 2011, compared with 17 in 2010 and 26 in 2007. A record 40 convicts were executed in 2000.
"Texas — along with the rest of the nation — is steadily moving away from the death penalty," said Kristin Houlé, executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, which issued a report on the death penalty statistics.
Nationwide, 43 people were executed this year, a 50 percent decline from 10 years ago, when 85 were executed.
In the past year, prison statistics show, Texas' death row received only eight new convicts, the same as 2010 and the lowest number since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstituted the death penalty in 1976. In 1999, the population of Texas' death row ballooned by 48.
"Use of the death penalty has been relegated to just a few jurisdictions in the state as prosecutors and jurors accept alternatives that protect society and punish those who are truly guilty," Houlé said. "Still, long-standing concerns about the arbitrary and biased administration of the death penalty remain."
And:
In the past three years, crime rates in Texas and across the nation have generally dropped, as has the prison population in many states. Texas' convict count is down slightly, allowing officials four months ago to close the first prison in state history.
Statistics show that since the Legislature enacted a life-without-parole law six years ago, the number of prisoners given that sentence has increased as the number of death sentences has generally declined. Through November, 398 convicts were in prison with no chance of parole — some who might otherwise have received the death penalty.
"Fewer Execution, Death Sentences in Texas," by Ian Crawford at KUT-FM.
The state of Texas executed 13 people in 2011. A report issued by the Austin-based Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty this morning says that’s the fewest since 1996 and well below the record of 40 executions set in 2000.
Kristin Houlé is the coalition’s executive director. She says one reason for the decreased number of executions is that five death row inmates received stays of execution this year.
“These includes two cases where there remains doubt,” Houlé told KUT News. She noted the case of Hank Skinner, who had a November execution date stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals while that panel determines whether changes in DNA testing laws would affect his case.
Houlé also says the report shows a 70 percent decrease in the number of death sentences handed out by Texas juries since 2003. Only eight death sentences were issued this year, the same number as last year. She thinks the Skinner case and the case of Cameron Todd Willingham has played a role in the decrease in death penalty sentences.
Coverage of the TCADP end-of-year- report begins at the link. "Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2011: The Year in Review," is available in Adobe .pdf format. TCADP has also provided a map of new Texas death sentences issued between 2007-2011.
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