Missouri's status as one of the most active death penalty states is about to change for one simple reason: The state is running out of inmates to execute. The lethal injection of Christopher Collings on Dec. 3 left just eight men on death row—a figurative term since condemned Missouri inmates are housed with other prisoners. By contrast, nearly 100 people were living with a death sentence three decades ago. Three of the eight Missouri inmates will almost certainly live out their lives in prison after being declared mentally incompetent for execution, the AP reports. Court appeals continue for the other five, and no new executions are scheduled.
Missouri isn't alone. Across the nation, the number of people awaiting the ultimate punishment has declined sharply since the turn of the century. "We are in a very, very different place than we were 25 years ago, and that's for very good reasons," said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that doesn't take a position on the death penalty but is critical of problems in its application.
- The Legal Defense Fund's Death Row USA report showed 2,180 people with pending death sentences this year, down from 3,682 in 2000. Missouri's peak year was 1997, when 96 people were on death row.
- After reaching a high of 98 US executions in 1999, the annual number hasn't topped 30 since 2014. So far this year, 23 executions have been carried out: six in Alabama, five in Texas, four in Missouri, three in Oklahoma, two in South Carolina, and one each in Georgia, Utah, and Florida. Two more are scheduled: Wednesday in Indiana and Thursday in Oklahoma.
- Use of the death penalty has declined in part because many states have turned away from it. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have abolished the punishment, and five others have moratoriums.
- Even in active death penalty states, prosecutors in murder cases are far more inclined to seek life in prison without parole.In the 1990s, the nation was typically seeing over 300 new death sentences each year. By contrast, 21 people were sentenced to death nationwide in 2023.
- A major factor is the cost. At trial, additional experts are often brought in, cases tend to run longer, and a separate hearing is required in the penalty phase, Maher said. And costs don't end with the prosecution. Court appeals often drag on for decades, running up huge legal bills incurred by public entities—prosecutors, attorneys general, public defenders. Sixteen of this year's 23 executions involved inmates incarcerated 20 years or more.
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