WASHINGTON (AP) – A new report says executions and new death sentences this year have dropped to their lowest numbers in decades.
Details were released by the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that opposes executions and tracks the issue.
The group says 35 inmates were executed this year and 71 have so far been given death sentences.
Just three states – Texas, Missouri and Florida – accounted for 28 executions, or 80 percent of the total. The only other states carrying out executions this year were Arizona, Georgia, Ohio and Oklahoma.
The group reports the last time fewer inmates were put to death was in 1994, when there were 31 executions nationwide.
