This month in Tennessee for the first time since 2009, led to the execution of the death penalty. Billy ray Irik, who was convicted in 1986 for the rape and murder of 7 year old Paula Dyer received a lethal injection. On August 14, scheduled the first since 1997 penalty in Nebraska. 38 years later that Carrie Dean Moore has been in prison for the murder of two taxi drivers of Omaha in ‘ 79, the sentence will be executed.
Now the death penalty is prohibited in 19 States and the district of Columbia, while in the 31st remains the ultimate punishment. However, in 11 of these States it is not used for more than a decade, reports the Death Penalty Information Center.
80 years without the «tower»
To date, Nebraska has among the seven States not caused a death sentence at least 15 years. In new Hampshire there was not a single execution of a prisoner in 1938, and in Kansas since 1965. They are followed by Wyoming (1992), Colorado and Oregon (1997), Pennsylvania (1999). In California, Montana, Nevada and North Carolina sentenced not executed since 2006, a little over 10 years.
The last Federal execution took place 15 years ago — in March of 2003, while the US army did not use its right to its carrying out since 1961.
In 2003, Louis Jones Jr., 53, entered a lethal injection for the rape and murder of private joy McBride, a 19-year-old serving in the U.S. Air force that Jones Jr. was kidnapped from the base in Texas in 1995. The defendant explained his action by the «Syndrome of the Gulf War» and the consequences of exposure to nerve gas in 1991 — at that time, as the prosecution emphasized the propensity of the prisoner to aggression before the incident.
The Supreme court refused to commute the sentence. It was executed on March 19.
Privates John Bennett hanged in 1961, the year in prison Fort Leavenworth in Kansas for the rape of 11-year-old Austrian girl. He was the only American soldier executed on charges of this crime in the postwar period.
Later, civil society activists have repeatedly drawn attention to the role of prisoner race in. Bennett was African American, and eight other soldiers were executed during his 6-year trial, while sentences of six white convicts was executed. The defense asked for leniency due to the fact that Bennett was mentally ill, and the family of the victim (including the girl, who at the time was 17) also opposed the execution. Neither President Eisenhower nor President Kennedy did not consider it sufficient grounds for a retrial.
Fewer executions but not sentences
Although the sentences have not been carried out in prisons in each of 11 States is now at least one prisoner awaiting the death penalty — the same applies to the Federal government and the army. The difference in numbers is huge: from one sentenced in new Hampshire and Wyoming to 744 in California — a record number in the country.
According to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, since the last executions in the Golden state, the number awaiting execution of a death sentence increased by 15% (nearly 100 people), and 30% from 2000.
Since 1978, California passed away 128 sentenced to capital punishment — however, only 15 of them were executed. The others died of natural causes or committed suicide.
However, the increase in the number of persons sentenced to death in California and Federal prisons (63 people, compared to 26 in 2003) are not too noticeable on the background of the General trend. In other States, between 2000 and 2017-th year, the number of pending executions decreased by 24% from 3,682 to 2,792, according to the NAACP.
This sharp decline is due to several factors — including the fact that between 2000 and 2017 in performance has led 867 sentences (346 of them in Texas), while part is awaiting the death penalty died of other causes. 78 convictions overturned, pardoning, acquitting or clearing of charges against prisoners. Decreased and the number of new sentenced — from 223 in 2000 to 39 in the past.
Scheduled for Tuesday, August 14, penalty Mur will be Nebraska’s first in 21 years. The state’s Governor, Pete Ricketts, is an ardent advocate of capital punishment, promised to bring more sentences soon.
