Death Penalty Researchers Call 2022 ‘Year of the Botched Execution’
The New York Times, December 16, 2022: Death Penalty Researchers Call 2022 ‘Year of the Botched Execution’
“More than a third of execution attempts in 2022 were mishandled, capital punishment researchers said on Friday, describing the seven visibly botched executions that took place in three states as ‘shocking,’ even as the total number of executions remained among the lowest in a generation.
“In one of the most comprehensive annual examinations of the death penalty in the United States, the Death Penalty Information Center found that the number of executions this year, 18, remained significantly lower than even a decade ago, when more than twice as many death row prisoners were killed. As public support for the death penalty has waned, the number of death sentences and executions has largely been in decline since the late 1990s; in 1999, 98 people were executed.
“But of the 20 execution attempts this year, seven were ‘visibly problematic,’ including two that were ultimately abandoned, the researchers wrote, adding that 2022 could thus be considered ‘the year of the botched execution.’”
Additional reading:
NPR, December 15, 2022: Oregon Gov. Kate Brown explains why she commuted all of her state's death sentences
AP News, December 15, 2022: Transgender inmate on Missouri’s death row asks for mercy
The New York Times, November 21, 2022: Alabama Suspends Executions After Lethal Injection Problems
