The death penalty is perceived as a widely-used criminal justice tool in the United States. However, a new report shows that the majority of death sentences and executions come from only 2 percent of U.S. counties.
“Eighty-five percent of the counties in the U.S. have not had a single case resulting in an execution in over 45 years,” said Richard Dieter, author of the report and executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. “The rest of the country is paying a high tariff on behalf of the small percentage of the counties that are actually using the death penalty.”
Aggressive use of the death penalty by a few counties produces enormous costs that are passed on to the entire state, the report found. A typical death penalty case costs an average of $3 million. That cost is paid largely by the state, however, the decision to seek the death penalty is usually made by a single county district attorney.
The report examined all the data from the modern era of the death penalty, which began in 1976. Thirty-two states still have the death penalty on the books. However, the study found that:
- 2 percent of counties are responsible for 56 percent of current death row inmates and 52 percent of executions since 1976.
- All executions since 1976 stem from cases in just 15 percent of counties in the U.S.
- The more than 3,100 people on death row in the U.S. came from just 20 percent of U.S. counties. Inversely, 80 percent of counties have no one on death row.
- 82 percent of executions since 1976 have been in the South.
North Carolina follows similar pattern
In N.C., 14 counties (out of a total 100) have been responsible for more than half of the 392 death sentences since 1976.
Forsyth County is No. 1 — having sent 24 people to death row — despite ranking 33rd in murder rate and having a population of less than half that of Wake and Mecklenburg counties.
The number of death sentences in a county is largely dependent on how aggressive the local district attorney is in seeking them. By comparison, Durham County, with a higher murder rate and similar population to Forsyth, has sentenced only seven people to death.
Meanwhile, 18 of North Carolina’s counties have not sentenced anyone to death and another 21 have sentenced only a single person to die since 1976.
An arbitrary death penalty is unjust, inefficient and unconstitutional.
Click here to read more about N.C.’s arbitrary use of the death penalty.
Watch a video about the new report
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