Death Penalty Decline

Guest: Brandon Garrett, JD, Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Virginia, Author of “End of Its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive Criminal Justice” The death penalty in America hit a peak in the mid-1990s and has been dropping off ever since. That’s a little surprising, isn’t it, considering how deeply engrained the death sentence is in our culture? But it’s actually a lot less popular in the public eye today, and in state legislatures across the country, conservatives are becoming as likely as liberals to sponsor bills banning it. With or without an actual ban, fewer states are handing down death sentences - only 13 states sentenced someone to death last year.