For five years straight, the United States has seen a decline in the number of death sentences, with less than 50 people sentenced to death and less than 30 people executed per year.
The year-end report released on Dec. 17 by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), a nonprofit dedicated to death penalty research, calculates that around 36 death sentences will be brought into effect in 2019, with the number of executions at 22, the second-lowest number since 1973.
