States, federal government carry out fewest executions since 1988

States and the federal government in 2021 carried out the fewest executions since 1988 as polling shows that support for the death penalty continues to dwindle.

In a report released Thursday by the Death Penalty Information Center, the U.S. was found to have carried out 11 executions this year, the lowest in more than 30 years.

Although the numbers have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, 2021 is the seventh year in a row the U.S. has had less than 30 executions and 50 death penalty sentences. 

The majority of the executions and death penalty sentences that occurred in 2021 were in Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma.

The decline in executions comes as polling has shown that support for the death penalty has dropped from 80 percent in 1994 to a low of 54 percent this year, according to Gallup polling that is cited in the report.

The report called out the 11 executions that were conducted this year, saying reviews of claims such as ineligibility due to mental illness were not properly investigated. 

“Those executed in 2021 included a severely mentally ill woman who never received a hearing on her competency to be executed, an intellectually disabled man who never received review of his claim that he was ineligible for the death penalty, and a man who without dispute did not kill anybody,” the report wrote.

“Two of the men who were executed were among the more than two dozen death-row prisoners who contracted COVID-19 as a result of prior federal superspreader executions,” it added. 

All but one of the 11 executed had significant impairments such as intellectually disabled, brain injury, brain damage, evidence of mental illness and chronic serious childhood trauma, neglect or abuse, according to the report.

The report also questioned the role of the Supreme Court in the matter, saying they have not been a “neutral arbitrator” and have denied ruling on serious legal or constitutional issues.

The low number of executions comes as more states have outlawed the death penalty. 

In 2021, Virginia became the 23rd state to outlaw the practice while three other states have a moratorium on the practice.