Murder Rate Down in U. S.

Maybe killing as many people as possible on the other side of the world has eased domestic bloodlust. The State-sanctioned murder rate is down.

AP – EMBARGOED until Dec. 11 at 12:01 a.m.; chart shows executions and death sentences since 1993; 2 c x 2 … All but four of the 37 executions this year occurred in the South and Texas, with Ohio and Oklahoma providing the exceptions. Half of the executions occurred in Texas, where 18 inmates were put to death. Virginia executed four prisoners. Georgia and South Carolina executed three each; Florida, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Ohio each executed two and Kentucky executed one. [...] But Richard Bonnie, a law professor at the University of Virginia and an expert on capital punishment, said it was expected that it would take some time after the moratorium was lifted for the normal pace of executions to resume, and he does not consider the drop in executions in 2008 as proof of a long-term decline. What is more important, Bonnie said, is the drop in death sentences. That data is unaffected by the moratorium, which banned only executions, not death sentences handed down by judges and juries. Death sentences have been on the decline more a decade. Bonnie said that while a majority of Americans still favor the death penalty, their fervor for it was waned as violent crime rates have receded. [...] Bonnie said he believes that public attitudes have softened on the death penalty in the last decade as the violent crime rate has receded. "The real test will be what happens when violent crime goes back up again, if that will lead to a reversal of these trends," Bonnie said.

Ah, according to the doctor there are other reasons for the slow-down. Perhaps so. Seems like bloodlust either way.