US hits 1,000 executions

Last updated at 15:55 29 November 2005


The United States will this week carry out its 1,000th execution since the death penalty was reintroduced in 1976.

But as the milestone approached, opponents expressed optimism that capital punishment was on the decline and would soon be a thing of the past.

David Elliott, spokesman for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said: "The annual execution rate has dropped 40% from a high of 98 in 1999.

"More importantly, death sentences have declined 50pc since the late 1990s to around 150 a year."

Just three states - Texas, Virginia and Oklahoma - account for more than half of the 998 executions performed since 1977. Texas alone has carried out 355.

Early this morning Eric Nance was executed by injection in Arkansas for the killing and attempted rape of an 18-year-old in 1993.

John Hicks, 49, was expected to become the 999th person killed today, having lost his chance for clemency for strangling his mother-in-law and suffocating his five-year-old stepdaughter while high on cocaine.

The 1,000th execution is scheduled for tomorrow in Virginia, of a man convicted of fatally stabbing a pool hall manager with a pair of scissors.

Robin Lovitt's case attracted worldwide attention since he was sentenced in 1999.

He claims that another man committed the murder and his lawyers have argued that DNA evidence used at his trial was illegally destroyed.

A recent Gallup poll found that 64pc of Americans favour the death penalty, down from 80pc in 1994.

Mr Elliott said: "The question is not whether we will abolish the death penalty but when?

"We predict it will be within 10 to 15 years. Our children will look back on this era with horror and embarrassment."

He said prosecutors were less likely to seek the death penalty and juries less willing to assess it.

"It's about innocence," he added. "The whole innocence factor has changed the nature of the debate. Ten years ago we weren't aware of the blunders being made but we are now learning about all of these horrific mistakes."

Since 1976, 122 people have been exonerated and released from death row.

Opponents argue that capital punishment costs much more than the alternatives, including life without parole.

The system costs taxpayers in California alone £66million ($114million) a year beyond the cost of life imprisonment.

The current death row population in America stands at almost 3,500.

On Friday, Kenneth Boyd is scheduled to die in North Carolina and Shawn Humphries in South Carolina.

Most watched News videos