November 28, 2006

Death Sentences Dropping

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Hurray for DNA! Thanks in large part to all those guys who keep getting exonerated from death row, the number of death sentences juries have handed down in execution-happy Texas has dropped by more than half in the last ten years, from 40 in 1996 to just 14 this year. That fits the pattern nationwide, where death sentences have fallen from about 300 per year in the 1990s to 125 in 2005. Even Texas’ Harris County, which has sent more residents to Death Row than any other jurisdiction in America in recent decades, only sentenced three people to be executed this year.

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Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do. That’s why we need you right now. Please chip in to help close the gap.

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