SURPRISING

Death Penalty Hits 20-Year Low

Executions, death sentences both down.

A total of 35 death-row inmates were executed in the U.S. in 2014, the lowest number since 1994. Meanwhile, death sentences hit a 40-year low, to about 72, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The decrease in executions is partly because of lethal-injection drug shortages and legal fights over botched procedures. As far as death sentences, the center’s Executive Director Richard Dieter said he believes that, "The realization that mistakes have been made, that innocent people are still being freed, has made juries hesitant. They are willing to convict but not sentence to death. There is a demand for perfect proof, and so prosecutors are taking more plea bargains."