Executions And Death Penalties In U.S. Drop Down To 20-Year Low In 2013

The rate of death penalty continues to decline with 39 people getting executed this year, only the second time in 19 years that fewer than 40 people were put to death, a private group reported Thursday.

Since capital punishment was reinstated in the 1970s, the number of new death sentences has been near its lowest level, said The Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that opposes executions and tracks the issue of death penalties.

"I think the decline begins with the revelations about mistakes in capital cases - that innocent people could get the penalty and almost be executed has shocked the public to the point where death sentences are harder to obtain," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the center.

Down from 315 in 1996, this year has seen 80 news death sentences, the Associated Press reported.

Carried out in nine states, Texas scored the highest with 16 executions and Florida followed it by seven, Oklahoma had six, Ohio three, Arizona and Missouri two each, and Alabama, Georgia and Virginia, one each.

Recording 48 death sentences in 1999, Texas showed a decline by scoring nine sentences this year. It is the sixth year in a row that Texas has had less than 10 death sentences, the AP reported. Maryland became the 18^th state to abolish the death penalty this year.

"There's a healthy skepticism about imposing a death sentence knowing that new information is almost certain to arise 10 or more years later," Dieter said. "Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty less, juries are imposing it less and ultimately executions are occurring less frequently."

According to Reuters, drugs used to make lethal injections for executions are manufactured in Europe. A cause for the reduction in executions is the European government's opposition to capital punishment and their refusal to export those drugs to the U.S. for executions.

The death row population has decreased each year since 2001. The number of people on death row declined to 3,108 inmates this April, compared to 3,170 at the same time last year, Reuters reported.