In 2016, 30 people were sentenced to death in the United States, the lowest number since the early 1970s and a sharp decline from the 49 people handed the death penalty in 2015 and the 315 sentenced to death in 1996, the peak year, according to a new report from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). The 20 executions carried out also marked a 25-year low — 14 people were put to death in 1991 — and a drop from last year's 28 executions and the 1999 apex, 98.
"I think we are watching a major political climate change concerning capital punishment and it's reflected among reduced death sentences across the country," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the DPIC, which opposes capital punishment. The decline in executions is also attributable to a shortage of drugs used in lethal-injection cocktails and more aggressive legal challenges by defendants. Still, only 49 percent of Americans now support the death penalty, according to a recent Pew poll, the lowest number since the mid-1960s and a big drop from the 80 percent who favored capital punishment in 1994.
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