November Death Penalty Focus, Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, Sustainable Action Network (SAN), They Started the Execution, Bobby Moore, Then Called It Off,Supreme Court Grants Stay to Jack Greene, Conservatives Increasingly See Death Penalty Repeal

The Supreme Court granted a stay earlier this week to Jack Greene, who was scheduled to be executed last night in spite of evidence of his mental illness. We look at two surprising reports, one that says Republicans were responsible for about a third of all repeal bills introduced in state legislatures in the past two years, the other the results of a Gallup poll that shows support for the death penalty in the U.S. is the lowest it’s been in 45 years. Texas’ method of determining whether a capital defendant is intellectually disabled, and therefore ineligible for the death penalty, was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, and defendant Bobby Moore may be the first death penalty prisoner to be released from death row as a result. SCOTUS recently heard arguments about another death row prisoner from Texas who may have been sentenced to death because he was indigent; while states from Nevada to Ohio continued to tinker with the machinery of death. Death penalty attorney Richard Burr remembers his friend and fellow defense attorney Rob Nigh in our “Voices” section, and we have some recommended reading “While we're on the subject."

One day after we released our report showing a surge of Republican death penalty repeal sponsors, more good news came out. Every October, Gallup releases its annual survey on death penalty support in the U.S. For the past several years, they have found support for capital punishment to be at or near its lowest point in 40-years. Now that support has declined even further.

According to the 2017 Gallup poll, support for capital punishment is the lowest it has been since 1972 – a 45-year low. While the firm found that 55% of Americans still favor the death penalty, it’s down from a high of 80% in 1994. They also discovered that Republican support for capital punishment dropped 10 points over the past year, bringing it to the lowest it has been since before 1988."

One day after we released our report showing a, more good news came out. Every October, Gallup releases its annual survey on death penalty support in the U.S. For the past several years, they have found support for capital punishment to be at or near its lowest point in 40-years. Now that support has declined even further.

Gallup’s poll is important because it shows long-term historical trends that reveal how Americans are turning against the death penalty. But Gallup’s numbers may actually be inflated, since other polling firms have shown support for the death penalty to be even lower.

Last year, PEW found national death penalty support to be at 49% – a 40-year low. Meanwhile, surveys in Kentucky, Oklahoma, and North Carolina altered their polling question and instead asked if respondents would support repealing and replacing the death penalty. In all 3 states, the majority supported ending capital punishment. Even more exciting information was found when one digs deeper into the polling data. In Kentucky and North Carolina, the majority of Republicans supported such measures, while the plurality of Republicans in Oklahoma also favored ending the death penalty.

While each pollster employs different methodologies and varying questions, two things are certain. Death penalty support is waning, and Republican opposition to capital punishment is growing. Given that conservatives are increasingly concluding that the death penalty violates our foundational principles, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

They Started the Execution, Then Called It Off. They couldn't find a vein for lethal injection

An Ohio inmate described as "the poster child for the death penalty" turned out to be too unhealthy to execute on Wednesday. The execution of 69-year-old convicted murderer Alva Campbell was halted 30 minutes in after a medical team failed to find viable sites for a lethal injection, the Columbus Dispatch reports. Campbell, who murdered 18-year-old Charles Dials during a 1997 carjacking and served 20 years in prison for a previous killing, was granted a temporary reprieve by Gov. John Kasich. He will return to death row with a new execution date of June 5, 2019, but he suffers from multiple illnesses and doctors are unsure whether he will survive long enough to be executed.

David Stebbins, Campbell's public defender, says the inmate shook hands with members of the medical team after the execution was called off, the AP reports. Stebbins says he has "no idea" whether the inmate will survive until 2019, but the health problems that made it impossible to find a usable vein are not going to go away. According to the AP, this is only the third time in modern US history that an execution in progress has been called off. Ohio inmate Rowell Broom is still alive after a botched execution attempt in 2009. In 1946, 16-year-old Louisiana inmate Willie Francis survived after a drunk prison guard improperly set up an electric chair. Francis was executed the following year.

Arkansas Supreme Court Grants Stay to Jack Greene

Jack Greene was granted an emergency stay by the Arkansas Supreme Court on Tuesday, two days before he was scheduled to be executed.

Conservatives Increasingly See Death Penalty Repeal as “The Right Way”

A new report says an increasing number of Republican legislators is realizing that the death penalty is “incompatible with core conservative principles.”

New Poll Finds Death Penalty Support Lowest in 45 Years

Americans’ support for the death penalty is now at 55 percent, the lowest number since 1972, according to a recent Gallup poll.

Texas DA Asks for Life Sentence for Bobby Moore

When the Harris County district attorney asked the Texas high court last week to resentence Bobby Moore to life in prison, she may have put an end to the state’s bewilderingly unscientific method of determining the intellectual disability of capital defendants.