Death Penalty Examination Hits Baltimore Sun
This article from The Baltimore Sun looks at the declining death penalty trend in Maryland, one of our target states.
FEWER PEOPLE are being sentenced to die.Fewer people are dying at the hands of the state.
Fewer states are in the business of killing criminals.
Has America lost its appetite for state-sponsored execution? The numbers may not support that conclusion, but the decrease in people sentenced to death in 2004 represents the sixth consecutive annual decline. Something's afoot. The 125 death sentences issued last year were 19 fewer than in 2003, the lowest since the U.S. Supreme Court reintroduced capital punishment in 1976.
The reasons for the decline vary. Proponents of capital punishment attribute it to the Supreme Court's narrowing of eligible defendants. Opponents point to DNA exonerations -- 117 since 1996 -- and other high-profile cases of wrongful convictions. Whatever the reason, the decline in death sentences, as reported by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, should give judges and juries pause. They underscore the fallibility of the criminal justice system. And they reflect a growing recognition by the public of the immutability of capital punishment in the face of those failings.
Posted by beth at 01:21 PM
