7 of the 20 executions attempted this year were "visibly problematic," including 1 attempt at lethal injection that led to an unprecedented 3-hour struggle to insert an intravenous (IV) line into an Alabama man, the Death Penalty Information Center said in its annual report.
2 of the 20 executions attempts this year - both lethal injections in Alabama - were called off midway after officials tried and failed to establish IV lines, prompting the state's Republican governor to call for a "top-to-bottom" review of the execution process.
Other scheduled executions were called off in Tennessee, Idaho and South Carolina when state officials discovered lapses in execution preparation or protocol, the report said.
The 18 executions that occurred in 2022 were the fewest in 3 decades, with the exception of the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 when many states paused or slowed executions. Outside the pandemic years, the 22 death sentences handed down in 2022 were fewer than in any prior year.
37 U.S. states have abolished the death penalty or not executed anyone in more than a decade, so this year's executions were highly concentrated in a few states, with more than half occurring in Oklahoma and Texas.
Oregon's Democratic governor on Tuesday commuted the death sentences of the state's 17 death-row inmates, leaving them to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole, and directed officials to disassemble the state's execution chamber.
Public support in the United States for executing prisoners hovered this year just 1 % point above a 5-decade low reached in 2021, when 54% of respondents told a Gallup poll they supported capital punishment.
A Rasmussen Reports poll conducted in 2022 found even lower support for the death penalty, with just 46% respondents saying they supported it.
Source: Reuters, Staff, December 17, 2022
2022 could be called 'the year of the botched execution,' new report says
7 of 20 execution attempts in 2022 were “visibly problematic” in 2022, according to a year-end report by the Death Penalty Information Center.
The problems stemmed from executioner incompetence, failures to follow protocols or defects in the protocols, according to the report. Because of those failures, 2022 could be called “the year of the botched execution,” the report said.
In “the longest botched lethal-injection execution in U.S. history” in Alabama, executioners weren’t able to set an IV line for three hours in July for Joe James Jr., who was convicted for killing his girlfriend, the report said. Two more scheduled executions were called off when executioners again had problems starting the IVs.
Since then, Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey paused executions for a review of the system. Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has also paused executions and appointed a former U.S. attorney to review the lethal-injection process.
The death penalty was imposed in 20 cases in 2022 as of the morning of Dec. 16. Possible capital sentences were possible in two more cases in San Bernardino County, California. Even if death sentences are imposed in those cases, the year’s total of 22 death sentences would be the lowest in the last 50 years, with the exception of the COVID-19 pandemic years 2020 and 2021.
The report noted that 37 states have abolished the death penalty or have not carried out an execution in more than a decade.
Earlier this week, Democratic Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced that she was commuting the sentences of the state’s 17 death row inmates to life in prison without parole. The Oregonian had coverage.
The 5-year average of executions is 18.6 per year, the lowest average in more than 30 years, according to the report.
10 of this year’s 18 executions were carried out in Oklahoma and Texas. The only other states that executed prisoners in 2022 were Alabama, Arizona, Mississippi and Missouri.
Those executed included people with serious mental illnesses, brain damages, intellectual disabilities and strong claims of innocence, the report said. Two people were executed, even though prosecutors sought to withdraw the death warrants.
Jamila Hodge, executive director Equal Justice USA, an organization that works to transform the justice system, commented on the report in a statement.
“This latest annual report shows growing trends away from the death penalty that make it abundantly clear capital punishment in America is on the way out,” Hodge said. “Racial bias in the system can be found everywhere in the report, reinforcing why more Americans see the death penalty as an instrument of racial oppression. And the data reveal the system preys on those with severe trauma and mental illness, people whom we have failed as a society.”
Source: ABA Journal, Staff, December 17, 2022
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde