US death penalty rates continuing to drop: report

[JURIST] There were only 78 new death sentences handed down in the US in 2011—the first time that number has dropped below 100 since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976—according to a report [text, PDF; press release] published Thursday by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) [advocacy website]. There were 43 executions in 13 states in 2001, down from 46 executions in 2011. The report noted that Illinois abolished the death penalty in 2011 and that Oregon’s governor put…