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Page Number: 84.0

34 

GLOSSIP v. GROSS 

BREYER, J., dissenting 

persons  were  sentenced  to  death.    BJS  2013  Stats,  at  19 
(Table  16).  Last  year,  just  73  persons  were  sentenced  to 
death.  DPIC,  The  Death  Penalty  in  2014:  Year  End  Re­
port 1 (2015).

That  trend,  a  significant  decline  in  the  last  15  years,
also  holds  true  with  respect  to  the  number  of  annual
executions.  See  Appendix  B,  infra  (showing  executions
from 1977–2014).  In 1999, 98 people were executed.  BJS, 
Data  Collection:  National  Prisoner  Statistics  Program
(BJS  Prisoner  Statistics)  (available  in  Clerk  of  Court’s
case file).  Last year, that number was only 35.  DPIC, The 
Death Penalty in 2014, supra, at 1. 

Next,  one  can  consider  state-level  data.    Often  when 
deciding whether a punishment practice is, constitutionally
speaking,  “unusual,”  this  Court  has  looked  to  the  num- 
ber of States engaging in that practice.  Atkins, 536 U. S., 
at 313–316; Roper, supra, at 564–566.  In this respect, the
number of active death penalty States has fallen dramati­
cally.  In 1972, when the Court decided Furman, the death 
penalty  was  lawful  in  41  States.    Nine  States  had  abol­
ished  it.  E.  Mandery,  A  Wild  Justice:  The  Death  and 
Resurrection  of  Capital  Punishment  in  America  145 
(2013).  As  of  today,  19  States  have  abolished  the  death
penalty  (along  with  the  District  of  Columbia),  although
some  did  so  prospectively  only.    See  DPIC,  States  With 
and  Without  the  Death  Penalty,  online  at  http://www. 
deathpenaltyinfo.org/states-and-without-death-penalty.    In 
11  other  States  that  maintain  the  death  penalty  on  the 
books,  no  execution  has  taken  place  for  more  than  eight
years:  Arkansas  (last  execution  2005);  California  (2006);
Colorado  (1997);  Kansas  (no  executions  since  the  death
penalty was reinstated in 1976); Montana (2006); Nevada
(2006);  New  Hampshire  (no  executions  since  the  death
penalty  was  reinstated  in  1976);  North  Carolina  (2006); 
Oregon (1997); Pennsylvania (1999); and Wyoming (1992). 
DPIC, Executions by State and Year, online at http://www.