The US is one of the few countries where the death penalty is legal as a criminal punishment, but the number of states prohibiting the death penalty has grown. Six states outlawed capital punishment between 2010 to 2021. Other states stopped performing executions due to a governor’s order or a state Supreme Court ruling. The number of executions is also falling nationwide: after reaching a peak of 98 in 1999, executions declined in 16 of the following 22 years.
A set of Supreme Court cases from the 1970s determined the legality of American capital punishment. The 1972 Furman v. Georgia Supreme Court ruling effectively banned the death penalty by saying the methods used were a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
