USA - The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) has released its 2008 report. Executions and death sentences are down

The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) has released its 2008 report. Executions and death sentences are down, which is no surprise given the moratorium on lethal injections that lasted until the Supreme Court's April ruling in Baze v. Rees, but 2 salient facts stand out. First, the death penalty is growing less popular. In 1994, Gallup estimated that 80% of Americans supported capital punishment; the figure has dropped steadily until this year, where support has dropped to 64%. Second, the death penalty is becoming an almost uniquely Southern institution, supported in states with notably rural demographics. In 2008, fully 95% of executions took place South of the Mason-Dixon line--and the other 5% took place in the Appalachian states of Kentucky and Ohio.