Death penalty in decline
Judging by all the indicators, capital punishment is slowly disappearing from the US. The end of year report from the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonpartisan authority on the subject, reads like the final will and testimony of the practice. Among its findings: this year 20 prisoners have been judicially killed, down from 28 in 2015 and well below the peak of 98 in 1999. The slow decline seems poised to continue, as the power to terminate the practice rests with the supreme court and the president-elect is likely to nominate a hardline conservative to the bench. Despite the drop in executions, there was still a sufficient number to generate deep unease about the nature of the prisoners’ convictions and stomach-churning spectacles within the death chamber.