Only 4 states besides Alabama have carried out executions in 2023

Alabama is one of a handful of states to carry out an execution in 2023, a year in which the use of capital punishment increased but still remained far below the peak of 24 years ago, according to a new report from the Death Penalty Information Center.

Five states have executed a total of 24 people this year, six more executions than in 2022. But it was the ninth consecutive year of fewer than 30 executions in the United States, a marked decline since 1999, when there were 98 executions, the most since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976.

Alabama was one of seven states where courts handed out new death sentences this year, the fewest number of states doing so in 20 years.

The numbers are from the Death Penalty Information Center, which released its annual report on executions and capital punishment policies and trends.

Alabama executed James Barber in July and and executed Casey McWhorter two weeks ago, both by the lethal injection. Alabama’s next execution is scheduled for January, when it is set to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith by nitrogen hypoxia, a method never used by any state.

Other states that have carried out the death penalty this year are Texas, with eight executions, Florida with six, and Oklahoma and Missouri with four each. The number of states carrying out executions tied 2016 as the fewest number of states in 20 years. All 24 executions were by lethal injection.

There were a total of 21 new death sentences nationally.

Florida led states with five death sentences this year, followed by California with four, Alabama and Texas with three each, Arizona and South Carolina with two each, and Louisiana with one. The federal court system issued one new death sentence.

Alabama has 167 inmates on death row, the fourth largest number among states. The only states with more are California with 665, Florida with 313, and Texas with 192. Alabama’s death row population is larger than Georgia’s (41), Mississippi’s (36), and Tennessee’s (47) combined.

The DPIC report includes results from an annual Gallup survey on crime that shows for the first time more Americans believe the death penalty is carried out unfairly (50%), than fairly (47%).

“The data show that most Americans no longer believe the death penalty can be imposed fairly,” Robin M. Maher, DPIC’s executive director, said in a press release. “That important change can also be seen in the unprecedented show of support for death-sentenced prisoners from conservative lawmakers and elected officials this year, some of whom now oppose use of the death penalty in their state.”

Twenty-nine states have abolished the death penalty or paused it by executive action, according to the DPIC report.

Overall, a majority of respondents to the Gallup survey, conducted in October, still support the death penalty for those who commit murder. But that number, 53%, was the lowest since 1972. The number supporting the death penalty peaked at 80% in 1994.

The annual Gallup survey, which polls at least 1,000 adults, showed a sharp partisan divide on the death penalty. More than two-thirds of Republicans, 68%, said the death penalty was carried out fairly, while only 28% of Democrats said it was.

Eighty-one percent of Republicans support the death penalty for people convicted of murder, compared to 32% of Democrats and 51% of independents.

Three death row inmates were exonerated this year, bringing the total number of exonerations to 195 since 1973, the report says.

The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated all death penalty laws in 1972 in the case Furman vs. Georgia, finding that arbitrariness and racial discrimination raised concerns about whether the laws violated the constitution. The court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

The DPIC report says the U.S. Supreme Court granted one stay of an execution out of 34 requests during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 terms. The court has granted 11 emergency stay requests out of 270 since 2013, or 4%, according to a Bloomberg Law report cited by the DPIC.

Alabama is mentioned in several sections of the report.

The report carries a summary of the case of Alabama death row inmate Toforest Johnson with several others under a section about high-profile cases with claims of innocence.

The report says the Florida legislature passed two laws this year that expanded the use of the death penalty. One removed the requirement for a unanimous consent by the jury to impose the death penalty. The new law authorizes the death penalty if at least eight jurors concur.

That means Florida joined Alabama as the only state allowing the death penalty for less than a unanimous jury decision during the sentencing phase. Alabama requires at least 10 jurors to approve the death penalty during the sentencing phase after a unanimous verdict during the guilt phase.

The other new Florida law allows the death penalty for sexual battery of a child under the age of 12 that does not result in the death of the victim. In 2008, the Supreme Court struck down a similar Louisiana law imposing the death sentence for child rape, the DPIC said. That case, Kennedy v. Louisiana, was decided 5-4.

The DPIC report includes among its “key quotes” from 2023 an excerpt from an op-ed piece written by former Alabama governors Don Siegelman and Robert Bentley, who expressed regret about their reviews of death penalty cases.

“As governors, we had the power to commute the sentences of all those on Alabama’s death row to life in prison… We missed our chance to confront the death penalty and have lived to regret it, but it is not too late for today’s elected officials to do the morally right thing,” Siegelman and Bentley wrote.