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Page Number: 88.0

38 

GLOSSIP v. GROSS 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

occurred.    In  Texas,  the  State  that  carries  out  the  most 
executions, the number of executions fell from 40 in 2000 
to 10 in 2014, and the number of death sentences fell from 
48  in  1999  to  9  in  2013  (and  0  thus  far  in  2015).    DPIC, 
Executions by State and Year, supra; BJS, T. Snell, Capi­
tal Punishment, 1999, p. 6 (Table 5) (Dec. 2000) (hereinaf­
ter BJS 1999 Stats); BJS 2013 Stats, at 19 (Table 16); von
Drehle,  Bungled  Executions,  Backlogged  Courts,  and 
Three  More  Reasons  the  Modern  Death  Penalty  Is  a
Failed  Experiment,  Time,  June  8,  2015,  p.  26.    Similarly
dramatic  declines  are  present  in  Virginia,  Oklahoma, 
Missouri, and North Carolina.  BJS 1999 Stats, at 6 (Table
5); BJS 2013 Stats, at 19 (Table 16). 

These  circumstances  perhaps  reflect  the  fact  that  a 
majority of Americans, when asked to choose between the 
death  penalty  and  life  in  prison  without  parole,  now 
choose the latter.  Wilson, Support for Death Penalty Still
High, But Down, Washington Post, GovBeat, June 5, 2014,
online  at  www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/
2014/06/05/support-for-death-penalty-still-high-but-down; 
see also ALI, Report of the Council to the Membership on 
the  Matter  of  the  Death  Penalty  4  (Apr.  15,  2009)  (with­
drawing Model Penal Code section on capital punishment 
section  from  the  Code,  in  part  because  of  doubts  that  the
American  Law  Institute  could  “recommend  procedures
that  would” address  concerns about the administration of 
the  death  penalty);  cf.  Gregg,  428  U. S.,  at  193–194  (joint
opinion  of  Stewart,  Powell,  and  Stevens,  JJ.)  (relying  in 
part  on  Model  Penal  Code  to  conclude  that  a  “carefully
drafted  statute”  can  satisfy  the  arbitrariness  concerns
expressed in Furman).

I  rely  primarily  upon  domestic,  not  foreign  events,  in 
pointing to changes and circumstances that tend to justify 
the  claim  that  the  death  penalty,  constitutionally  speak­
ing,  is  “unusual.”    Those  circumstances  are  sufficient  to 
warrant our reconsideration of the death penalty’s consti­