BTW...here is the map of DP statutes:
-- DP was reinstated in 1976 after a Supreme Court moratorium iced it for several years. That's the officialsplit between the modern era and early American history as far as the death penalty goes.
-- Red states + the federal gov't are the ones with death penalty statutes who have executed since '76. Note: some of those haven't done an execution in many years and aren't likely to do so soon...so this probably would work better if the map did shades of red for # of executions to delineate worst offenders. The feds have only done 3 since '76: Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh ('01), some drug cartel guy ('01), and a rapist-murder ('03). Yeah...Bill Clinton was a bit of a shithead. That last one was so controversial the Bush Admin. shelved any future plans to proceed with more executions from the fed death row. And if his goons were too risk-averse for it, chances are anyone elected Prez. is going to abide by that precedent. So unlikely another one of the 59 on fed row is going to get his number called anytime soon, and we're back to the 1976-2001 non-practicing era. Besides, it's easier to do a drone strike and skip that whole pesky jurisprudence thing...so it's no big loss to them to let the statute collect mold (
).
-- Green-yellow states haven't attempted any executions since '76, but DO have active death rows. Kansas is probably itching to get back into the game, but the 1 guy on New Hampshire's DR won't ever (and they know they're headed to abolition eventually so they probably won't sentence anyone else). I seriously doubt American Samoa has anyone on DR or will ever try to put one on it...it's obsolescence without closing the loophole. U.S. Military retains the right for treason or war crimes, but is as reluctant as the feds to exercise it. Their statute is more or less equivalent to the countries who ban it for everything but war crimes, so it gets rationed accordingly. Also...drone strikes and conveniently friendly fire (
).
-- Striped red/blue states are the recent abolishments. Connecticut voted by legislative majority to abolish after a disastrous re-animation of its long-unused statute in ('06?), so their status was directly the cause of the intensely negative reaction of doing their first one in decades in a state where attitutes changed during the dormancy. Still has an active death with 11 people who can still be executed, although the Gov. is reviewing those cases and will probably commute them all. New Mexico also abolished for new cases, but has 2 existing death row inmates grandfathered. Vanishingly unlikely those 2 will ever proceed; they'll either commute, or put it on official sunset by letting 'em die of natural causes without further action.
-- Blue states, territories, and Washington D.C. are abolished, and no longer have death rows. Puerto Rico is almost certainly going to present abolition in its draft state constitution with a formal application for statehood.
-- Orange striped states (New York and Massachusetts) were abolitished by State Supreme Court rulings instead of legislative/voter actions, haven't executed anyone since '76, and haven't attempted to modify their statutes to get around the court order. I'm not even sure the court orders can be tweaked around, even if they tried, so both really should be considered blue states.
Red states that probably wont execute again:
-- North Carolina - State medical board barred physicians from participating in executions, and state law requires that physicians administer executions. Catch-22, no way around it unless the med board reverses course (possible because the extremist Republicans are in charge, but not likely). They're rocketing up the list of swing states likely to close their loopholes in the next decade.
-- California - Under court-ordered moratorium (since '06) to fix the flaws in its DP, and can't as of this moment proceed with any. Thank the Governator's reckless Admin. for being sloppy with its last executions and getting slapped by the courts. Though it wouldn't take much to fix it, extremely unlikely that'll ever proceed and extremely likely a ballot initiative is going to close the loophole within 4 years. Of course, they still have to stock the drug to legally maintain a DR in case it gets reinstated tomorrow, so nothing's preventing them with embarrassing themselves with these bumbling drug-running schemes.
-- Oregon - Under Governor-ordered moratorium (since '11) to fix flaws in its DP, can't proceed with any executions until fixed. Very unlikely they'll attempt it, probably looking at a formal abolition within 5 years.
-- Kentucky - Under court-ordered moratorium (since '09) until they fix their lethal injection procedures. Which of course just got a hell of a lot harder with the drug embargo. Kentucky's not lockstep with the Deep South, so iffy if there's enough support for them to even try (another case where Oklahoma's zeal and propensity for fuck-ups does the opposition favors). Probably won't close the loophole anytime soon, not because of lack of support but because it's too difficult to write a statute that'll get the drugs.
Other:
-- Arkansas - Lethal injection rules unconstitutional by State Supreme Court ('12). 13th most prolific executor now on ice. They'll probably try to bring back Ol' Sparky rather than deal with the lethal injection supply legalities, but if successful that'll SEVERELY crimp the # of people they can feasibly execute. Probably by 90% or more. Barring a miracle turnaround, one of the Old Confederacy killin' giants has pretty much been slayed...even if they don't stop entirely.
-- Nevada - Has ONLY executed 11 DR inmates who voluntarily opted for execution (that weird Mormon thing about giving them "choices" about the punishment), but has been gun-shy about forcing it involuntarily. Since it's a swing state trending more liberal, they're a prime case for outright abolition in the next 15 years. Plus, abolishing it would take away more rights from prisoners! Everyone wins!