WHO: Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
WHAT: 2024 Year-End Death Penalty Report
WHEN: December 19, 2024 Noon Eastern
WHY: PA-specific Info re: Death Penalty Information Center 2024 Report
CONTACT: Kathleen Lucas [email protected] 717-236-4840
With Death Penalty Support Near Historic Low, Four States Responsible for Three-Quarters of Executions in 2024
(York, PA) Today, the Death Penalty Information Center released its annual report, which shows that death sentences, executions, and public support for capital punishment remained near record lows in 2024. This year marked the tenth consecutive year in which fewer than 30 people were executed (25), and fewer than 50 people were placed under a sentence of death as of December 19, 2024.
Ten states—Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, Nevada, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas—sentenced people to death in 2024. The majority of U.S. states have either abolished the death penalty or have paused executions by executive action. Use of the death penalty continues to be geographically isolated, with just nine states — Alabama (6), Florida (1), Georgia (1), Indiana (1), Missouri (4), Oklahoma (4), South Carolina (2), Texas (5), and Utah (1)—responsible for the 25 executions in 2024. Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas account for more than three-quarters of those executions.
It has been 25 years since Pennsylvania last carried out an execution. In 2024, Pennsylvania exonerated Daniel Gwynn, the 13th person exonerated after being condemned to die by “we the people” of the Commonwealth. More than 200 death sentences have been overturned due to constitutional errors during this same period. We are now in a second gubernatorial administration committed to postponing any scheduled executions through reprieves.
Public support for the death penalty remains at a five-decade low (53%), and new polling reveals significant generational differences. A majority of millennials and Generation Z (people ages 43 and younger) now oppose the death penalty. The shift in public opinion is also evident in the growing number of conservative state lawmakers and pro-death penalty elected officials who publicly supported prisoners with innocence claims, including Richard Glossip in Oklahoma, Marcellus Williams in Missouri, and Robert Roberson in Texas, and who raised new concerns about the fairness and accuracy of the death penalty in their states.
Rob Dunham, Director of the Death Penalty Policy Project, stated that the capital punishment system “is marred by geographic arbitrariness and racial bias. “Who gets capitally prosecuted depends less on the nature of the crime than on where it occurred.” Marc Bookman, Director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, pointed out Washington and Cumberland counties as among the worst.
Last year, the House Judiciary Committee passed HB999 to abolish the death penalty with bipartisan support. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Chris Rabb, pointed out that our justice system is simply too fallible and the benefits too small to continue this practice. He plans to reintroduce the bill in the next legislative session.
There are currently 95 individuals under a sentence of death in Pennsylvania, a dramatic decline from a high of well over 200 in the late 1990s.
The following can be attributed to Marshall Dayan, Board Chair of Pennsylvanians for Alternatives to the Death penalty, who recently retired after 37 years as a capital defense attorney. “We have never been closer to repealing the death penalty in Pennsylvania than we are today.