Texas Department of Criminal Justice

Texas juries imposed only two new death sentences in 2015, the fewest since the death penalty was reinstated nationwide almost 40 years ago, according to a national report released Wednesday.

Just 49 death sentences were handed down across the country this year, a 33 percent drop from last year’s 73 — which was already a 40-year low, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Executions declined to a 24-year low, with 28 conducted in six states – Texas, Missouri, Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma and Virginia.

 

The numbers reflect a decline in support for capital punishment nationwide, according to the center’s annual report.

The report cites a Pew Research Center poll that shows a 20-percent decline in support of capital punishment since the 1980s and 1990s. A majority of those polled, however, still supported the death penalty. But in the 2015 American Values Survey, 52 percent of Americans polled said they prefer a sentence of life without parole.

var url = ‘//s3.amazonaws.com/graphics.texastribune.org/graphics/death-sentences-1015/index2.html’; var pymParent = new pym.Parent(‘pym-graphic’, url, {});

 Learn about The Texas Tribune’s policies, including our partnership with The Trust Project to increase transparency in news.

Johnathan Silver reported on the state’s criminal justice system for the Tribune from 2015 to 2017. Previously, Johnathan was a Texas Associated Press Managing Editors Buster Haas intern and staff reporter...

Jolie McCullough was a reporter at The Texas Tribune from 2015 to 2023. She began as a data visualization journalist and then reported on criminal justice policy, ranging from policing and courts to prisons...