Noting 2024 death sentencing trends in a number of notable states

As 2024 winds down, I have seen a few notable press pieces highlighting death sentencing (and execution) trends in a few notable states.  Because the long-term fate and future of capital punishment in the US largely turns on death sentencing trends, I will highlight that part of these stories in the excerpts below:

From Alabama, “Steve Marshall proud Alabama leads US in executions, despite backlash“

The [Death Penalty Information Center] reported of the 26 people newly sentenced to death in 2024, four were inmates in Alabama.  Over 40 percent of 2024’s new death sentences occurred in Alabama or Florida, the only states in which non-unanimous juries may impose capital punishment.  Nine of these eleven death sentences were non-unanimous decisions.

From Florida: “Executions in Florida dropped in 2024, but number of new death sentences lead nation“

But even as Florida carried out only one execution this year, the seven death sentences handed out by juries topped all states, edging out Texas’ second-place total of six.  About one-third of the 26 new death sentences imposed nationwide came from non-unanimous juries, including six in Florida. Last year, DeSantis enacted legislation which reduced the number of votes needed to recommend a death sentence from unanimous to eight-out-of-12 jurors.

From Oklahoma, “As Oklahoma Executions Continue, New Death Sentences Grow Rare“

Oklahoma’s death row is dwindling with each execution.  No state court has imposed a death sentence since May 13, 2022, when a Tulsa County judge followed a jury’s recommendation and sentenced David Ware to death for the murder of Tulsa Police Sgt. Craig Johnson….  The nearly 1,000-day stretch without a new death sentence is Oklahoma’s longest since at least 1974, according to data compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that does not take a position on the death penalty but describes itself as critical of how it’s administered. 

From Texas, “Texas ranked second in executions carried out in 2024, behind Alabama“

The six new death sentences handed down by Texas juries this year were double the number handed down last year. Still, the long-term trend is of decline. “Death sentences peaked in this state in 1999, when juries sent 48 people to death row,” [Kristin Houlé] Cuellar said. “For the last decade, death sentences have remained in the single digits every year.”