The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) released their annual report on Friday, reporting that for the first time more Americans believe the death penalty is administered unfairly than those who believe otherwise. The report also revealed that there were more death penalty sentences imposed than executions carried out during 2023. A majority of US state have abolished or paused death penalty executions. Despite this, there was little relief from the courts in the face of innocence claims from prisoners, which the DPIC said, “[R]ais[es] questions about the adequacy of state procedures and the ability of the system to protect innocent people.”

The modern era of the death penalty came in 1976 when the death penalty was reinstated by the US Supreme Court. During this time the Supreme Court was heavily involved in states’ execution processes, but today, “the majority of the Court appears unwilling to continue this role,” despite serious dissenting concerns from Justices Kentanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

The court’s position also stands in stark contrast with current public opinion on the death penalty. For the first time in American history, according to a Gallup survey, there are more people—roughly 50 percent of those surveyed—who believe the death penalty is administered unfairly than those who believe it is administered fairly—47 percent of those surveyed.

Innocence cases captured a lot of the media’s attention during 2023. There were a total of three exonerations this year, including John Huffington, Jesse Johnson and Glynn Simmons. All three were exonerated for various reasons including error in the convictions and trial as well as a lack of critical evidence. There has also been “unprecedent support for prisoners with innocence claims from state legislators, prosecutors, and other elected officials.”

Despite the efforts to help individuals claiming innocence, there has been little support from the Supreme Court. This year the Supreme Court has overruled precedents and ceded “ground to state death penalty laws and procedures,” with the majority citing that they must not encroach on “the State’s sovereign power to enforce societal norms through criminal law.” The Supreme Court also stayed only one execution out of a total of 26 stays of execution sought, including the three innocence claims that received high media attention.

24 people were executed in 2023, which superseded the 18 executed in 2022. Despite this, 2023 has been the ninth consecutive year where fewer than 30 people were executed. Florida and Texas were responsible for more than half of the year’s total executions.

Florida has seen a substantial shift in the death penalty this year because this is the first time Florida has executed anyone since 2019. Florida also passed two laws expanding the death penalty by removing the unanimous jury requirement. “Florida has now set the lowest threshold for the imposition of death, allowing a death sentence if at least eight jurors agree.” Florida also passed “a law that allows the death penalty as punishment for sexual battery of a child under the age of 12 that does not result in the death of the victim,” which is in direct conflict of Supreme Court precedent.

The DPIC also found that marginalized groups are still victimized by the death penalty process. Similar to last year, the majority of crimes involving white defendants involved white victims. Of all the white defendants who were executed, none of them “were convicted of killing a person of color.”  Those who suffered from mental illness, such as Johnny Johnson, were denied relief from the courts. “79 [percent] of the people executed this year had at least one of the following impairments: serious mental illness; brain injury, developmental brain damage, or an IQ in the intellectually disabled range; and/or chronic serious childhood trauma, neglect, and/or abuse.”

The DPIC is a national non-profit organization based in Washington DC, that aims to serve the public with analysis and information on issues pertaining to capital punishment. DPIC provides unbiased and factual information about the death penalty to serve as a reliable resource. The center releases annual reports on the death penalty, produces reports on various issues, and offers a variety of multimedia resources to relay all pertinent knowledge. In an interview with JURIST in 2022, DPIC’s former executive director Robert Dunham relayed that DPIC “doesn’t take a position for or against the death penalty itself, but we are critical of the way in which it’s administered,” and that DPIC is the “press secretary for the truth about the death penalty.”