Executions in the U.S. declined to their lowest level in a decade this year, according to a study released Thursday by the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment.
Fifty-three people have been executed this year, with no more scheduled until 2007.
That is down from 60 last year and a significant drop from the peak of 98 executions in 1999, the Washington-based organization said in a year-end report.
Two-thirds of Americans still support capital punishment, the Gallup Poll found this year, but for the first time in two decades, it found that more Americans prefer that the penalty for murder be life without parole rather than death, by 48% to 47%, noted the Death Penalty Information Center.
The attitude is a marked change from last year, when the Gallup Poll reported that 56% of Americans preferred the death penalty compared with 39% who supported life without parole.
This year's developments come amid exonerations of individuals who had been sentenced to death and amid challenges to the lethal-injection process that have led to execution stays in several states, including California, for most of the year.
A ruling is expected soon from U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose on whether California's lethal injection procedure presents an unnecessary risk of inflicting severe pain on condemned inmates and thereby violates the constitutional prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
Similar challenges have delayed executions in Arkansas, Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio and South Dakota and in three federal cases.
Further fuel was added to the lethal-injection controversy this week when an execution in Florida took 30 minutes -- twice as long as usual. Witnesses said the condemned man, Angel Diaz, appeared to be grimacing. Gov. Jeb Bush said an investigation would be conducted.
In addition to the decline in executions, fewer people were sent to death rows by juries, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the organization that released the study.
Dieter estimated that based on the most recent statistics available, the number of capital sentences imposed this year would total 114. That compares with 125 death sentences last year, according to Bureau of Justice statistics, and is a steep decline from the 276 imposed in 1999.
"The American public has turned an important corner in this debate," Dieter said.
