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October 6, 2008 9:19:30 PM CDT

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Americans Losing Taste for Death Penalty

Posted Sep 2, 07 7:34 AM CDT in Politics,  Arts & Living,  US 

(Newser) – Capital punishment seems to be dying a slow death in the US. As public sentiment shifts toward life sentences, the number of death sentences has dropped 60% since the mid-'90s and the number of executions has fallen 46% since 1999, reports the Economist. Then there’s Texas, which has carried out some 40% of the nation's 1,000 executions since 1976.

Of the three main arguments supporting capital punishment—deterrence, religious "eye for an eye" retaliation, and a lower cost compared with life imprisonment—evidence for the first is sketchy and the last is no longer true. Recent evidence that even lethal injection can be excruciatingly painful and a rash of vindications of men on death row is also reshaping public opinion.

Source Economist

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This image released by the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services shows the electric chair at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Neb., April 3, 2007. For the second time this year, state...   (Associated Press)
Dave Atwood, right, founder of Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, waits in the rain with Kelly Epstein to protest the scheduled execution of Johnny Ray Conner, Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007 at the...   (Associated Press)
This undated photo supplied by the Florida Department of Corrections shows the gurney used to execute death row inmates with a lethal injection in Starke, Fla. The botched death of death row inmate Angel...   (Associated Press)
Alabama's lethal injection chamber at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., is pictured in this Oct. 7, 2002 file photo. Anti-death penalty forces have gained momentum in the past few years,...   (Associated Press)
Margaret Snider, of Phoenix, demonstrates against the death penalty at the Arizona State Prison, Tuesday, May 22, 2007, in Florence, Ariz., where Robert Charles Comer, 50, became the first inmate to be...   (Associated Press)
Sabine Schlunk holds a sign during a vigil against the execution of Philip Workman outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, Tenn. Tuesday, May 8, 2007. Schlunk is originally from...   (Associated Press)
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