• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Demonstrators are seen near the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Ind., showing their opposition to the death penalty July 13, 2020. (CNS photo/Bryan Woolston, Reuters)

Death penalty hits historic low in U.S. ‘despite federal execution spree,’ says report

December 17, 2020
By Carol Zimmermann
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Feature, News, Respect Life, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

WASHINGTON (CNS) — A new report Dec. 16 by the Death Penalty Information Center said the use of capital punishment reached a historic low this year in the United States even with the return of federal executions by the Trump administration.

Seventeen people were executed in 2020, down from 22 in 2019. This lower figure stems in part from the coronavirus pandemic, but the report also notes that before the pandemic struck, the nation was set for a sixth straight year of lower numbers of death sentences and executions.

This year, more prisoners died of COVID-19 than were executed. In July, state executions came to a stop due to public health concerns related to COVID-19. Federal executions resumed in July after a 17-year hiatus.

Also, five people who were on death row were exonerated this year, bringing that total figure up to 172 since 1973.

2020 was the first time the federal government carried out more executions in one year than all of the U.S. states combined. Ten of this year’s executions were conducted by the federal government; the other seven were conducted by five states — Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas. These states, with the exception of Texas, each had one execution.

Texas had three this year, but the number was its lowest since 1996. Eight executions in the state were stayed or withdrawn primarily because of the pandemic.

Also, there were fewer executions carried out nationwide this year than in any year since 1991, when there were 14, and executions by states were lower than in any year since 1983.

“At the end of the year, more states and counties had moved to end or reduce death-penalty usage, fewer new death sentences were imposed than in any prior year since capital punishment resumed in the U.S. in 1970s, and states carried out fewer executions than at any time in the past 37 years,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of Death Penalty Information Center and the lead author of the group’s 2020 report.

“What was happening in the rest of the country showed that the administration’s policies were not just out of step with the historical practices of previous presidents, they were also completely out of step with today’s state practices,” he said.

One figure that didn’t change involved race. Almost half of the inmates executed were people of color, and 76% of the executions were for the deaths of white victims.

“Racism has always infected the use of the death penalty and this year is no exception. The death penalty — as the most severe punishment — must be part of the efforts to address racism in the criminal legal system as a whole, ” said Ngozi Ndulue, senior director of research and special projects with the Death Penalty Information Center.

This year, there have been some strides in racial justice legislation, according to the report. The North Carolina Supreme Court reinstated the relief granted under the state’s now-repealed Racial Justice Act and allowed defendants who had filed claims before its repeal to seek relief based on racial bias in their trials. The court’s action reinstated life sentences granted to four death-row prisoners and allowed more than 140 death-row prisoners to pursue claims.

In California, the Legislature passed a wide-ranging Racial Justice Act and legislation strengthening the prohibition against discriminatory jury selection.

This year, Colorado became the 22nd state to no longer use the death penalty. Twelve states that still use it have not executed anyone in at least 10 years, the report found.

Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, said the number of federal executions this year “is a shameful aberration” that “goes against nationwide declines in executions, falling death sentencing rates and a long-term drop in public support for capital punishment.”

For decades, she said in a Dec. 16 statement, the Catholic Church has called for the abolition of capital punishment, a stance cemented in 2018 with a revision to the Catechism of the Catholic Church calling the practice “inadmissible.”

In response to the federal government’s restart of executions, Catholics across the U.S. voiced their opposition and participated in a series of virtual prayer vigils. More than 1,000 faith leaders signed a joint statement to government leaders to stop this practice.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released frequent statements similarly urging the federal government to stop the federal executions.

“The outcome of the recent presidential election suggests that the current federal execution spree will soon, thankfully, come to an end,” said Vaillancourt Murphy. “President-elect (Joe) Biden’s platform was clearly opposed to the death penalty, but it remains to be seen how that stance might translate into measurable progress toward abolition.”

Looking ahead to 2021, she said Catholics must remain vigilant.

“A strong, mobilized and persistent Catholic voice will be needed in the coming months,” she said, “to move this nation away from the death-dealing practice of capital punishment.”

Read more Respect Life News

Is NFP finally breaking into medical schools?

Nearly one in three conceptions in England and Wales end in abortion, government figures reveal

Planned Parenthood

Judge blocks, for now, Planned Parenthood defunding provision backed by bishops

Report: US abortions continue post-Dobbs rise in part due to telehealth

In retrial, judge acquits man charged in assault on pro-life protester

Supreme Court rules states can deny Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood

Copyright © 2020 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Carol Zimmermann

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Father Robert Wojsław dies at 52

  • Quo Vadis attracts biggest crowd ever, promotes camaraderie and faith

  • NBC’s Tom Llamas says Catholic education deepened his faith, pushed him to always do his best

  • Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

  • New Catholic scouting patch honors Pope Leo XIV

| Latest Local News |

Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

Radio Interview: Youth ministry changing with the times

Quo Vadis attracts biggest crowd ever, promotes camaraderie and faith

Lay associates journey with the Oblate Sisters of Providence

| Latest World News |

Christ is not absent from Gaza, but crucified in the wounded, patriarchs say after visit

Syrian Christian leaders say Islamist government can’t protect them or Druze

Kidnapped Nigerian priest who served in Alaska freed

Archbishop Wenski leads Knights on Bikes to pray rosary at Alligator Alcatraz

Poland’s government clashes with bishops over migration remarks while cardinal urges a shift in language

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Christ is not absent from Gaza, but crucified in the wounded, patriarchs say after visit
  • Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 
  • Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County
  • A Miracle for a Baby in Rhode Island (and for all of us)
  • Syrian Christian leaders say Islamist government can’t protect them or Druze
  • Kidnapped Nigerian priest who served in Alaska freed
  • Archbishop Wenski leads Knights on Bikes to pray rosary at Alligator Alcatraz
  • Poland’s government clashes with bishops over migration remarks while cardinal urges a shift in language
  • Patriarch’s visit hailed ‘a miracle,’ while parishioners in Gaza feel horror, desperation

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en