The Decline of the Death Penalty as seen through a Legislative Perspective (2013)

Undergraduate: Alexander Loyal

Faculty Advisor: Frank Baumgartner
Department: Political Science

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Three decades after other Western nations abandoned capital punishment, the United States of America has finally begun to follow suit. Since support for the death penalty peaked at 80 percent in the 1980s, public support has dropped moderately. Even more notably, in the late 1990s, there began a sharp decline in the total number of death sentences. In fact, after peaking at over 300 sentences in 1997, there were only 104 sentences in 2010.

I examine America¿s desire to limit the use of the death penalty since the late 1990s. The majority of the current scholarship regarding public opinion and the death penalty focuses upon judicial decisions and death sentences. I provide a unique analysis by studying the relationship between a change in public opinion and legislative bills.

I determine that all state legislatures have drastically restricted the applicability of the death penalty since the late 1990s. In fact, I illustrate that the number of bills restricting the use of the death penalty has increased significantly, while the number of expansions has decreased.