Stories highlight that the west is no longer so wild about the death penalty

These three newspaper pieces from three different western states strike a similar theme relating to the decline in political support for capital punishment:

“California has undergone a sea change on the death penalty” from the Los Angeles Times

“Poll: Nevadans divided over abolishing the death penalty, a shift from previous poll” from The Nevada Independent

“Bill to repeal death penalty in Wyoming advanced by legislative committee” from the Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Notably, as well detailed by the Death Penalty Information Center in this map of US executions, there have never actually been all that many executions west of Texas in the modern capital era. Indeed, Missouri alone has has more executions (90) than all states combined; leave out Arizona, and Ohio at 56 executions has had more than all those other weterns states combined. But, as also well detailed by this DPIC map of US death rows, a number of western states have sizeable death rows (with California’s death row twice as big as any other states’).