TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Number Of Executions Drops Sharply This Year

ADVERTISEMENT

The Associated Press

Published: October 18, 2007

WASHINGTON - With an inmate spared execution in Virginia on Wednesday, the United States is headed for the fewest executions in a year since the mid-1990s because of concerns over lethal injections and the Supreme Court's pending review of the issue.

The court blocked Virginia's plans to kill Christopher Scott Emmett, 36, hours before he was to die by lethal injection. Courts in Nevada and Texas this week also put off executions set before year's end.

Fewer than 50 executions will take place this year, even if several states pushing ahead with lethal injections defeat legal efforts to stop them. The last time executions numbered fewer than 50 was in 1996, when there were 45.

Since executions resumed in this country in 1977 after a Supreme Court-ordered halt, 1,099 inmates have died in state and federal execution chambers. The highest annual total was 98 in 1999, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment.

So far this year, 42 people have been executed. Texas, where 26 prisoners have been executed this year, plans no more executions in 2007 after federal and state judges stopped four death sentences from being carried out.

Executions also have been delayed in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas and Oklahoma since the court announced Sept. 25 it would hear a challenge to Kentucky's lethal injection method. Courts in California, Delaware, Missouri, North Carolina and Tennessee have previously cited problems with lethal injections procedures in stopping executions.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT