The death penalty has had a long run in America, but that run may not last forever. Though it’s not on life support, it’s definitely in serious condition. A form of punishment that was once widely used and highly popular has lost much of its allure.

So far this year, the Death Penalty Information Center says in its annual report, 35 people have been executed in the United States — down from 98 just 15 years ago. Forty-three states carried out none, and 18, including Illinois, have formally abolished it, as has the District of Columbia. Several states have suspended executions.

Even in the states that still allow it, the magic is gone. Prosecutors are less likely to seek it and juries are less likely to impose it. In 1996, 315 death sentences were handed down; this year, so far, there have been just 72 — a drop of 77 percent. In 2000, says DPIC, death rows across the country had 3,670 residents. The latest count: 3,035.

Even Texas, a longtime leader in lethal injections, has undergone a change. This year it executed only 10 inmates — compared with 40 in 2000. The number of new death sentences in the Lone Star State has likewise plunged.

This was a bad year for capital punishment in other ways too. In Arizona, the executioners needed 15 injections and nearly two hours to kill one condemned man. Another execution in Oklahoma went so badly, with doctors frantically searching for a usable vein and the condemned man groaning and writhing, that the lethal drugs were exhausted and the execution was stopped, though the prisoner died shortly after. These were poor advertisements for the death penalty.

The biggest reason for the nationwide decline, though, is modern DNA analysis, which over the years has revealed that a significant number of the condemned were wrongly accused. In 2000, Illinois Gov. George Ryan put a moratorium on executions.

At the time, Ryan said he could not allow anyone to be put to death under a system that was “so fraught with error and has come so close to the ultimate nightmare.” He and his successors never concluded that the flaws had been fixed. In 2011, Gov. Pat Quinn signed a measure abolishing capital punishment.

Cost may also be a factor in the fading appeal of the death penalty. The cumbersome process of trial and appeal in capital punishment makes it a luxury some states can do without. A study found that the average tab for securing each death sentence in Maryland was about $1.9 million more than the cost of a noncapital case.

Public opinion has shifted. In 1994, Gallup found, 80 percent of Americans favored capital punishment for murder. Today the number is 63 percent. Given the option of death or life imprisonment without the chance of parole, however, just 50 percent choose the former, with 45 percent preferring the latter.

Capital punishment is not going to disappear from this country anytime soon. But the more experience Americans have with it, the less they like it.

—Chicago Tribune

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