Sentencing dates post-Baze showing an old geographical disparity.
A little less than have of those condemned to death in the United States live outside of the former states of the Death Belt, i.e. the states of the old Confederacy + Oklahoma. Historically, roughly 85% of executions in this country, post-Furman, occurred in these states.
The odd thing has happened since the Supreme Court let execution resumes following Baze v. Kentucky, we are still seeing the same sort of geographical division that we have always seen with executions, this time through the lens of lethal injection. As the column to the right suggests, the only states setting serious x-dates post-Baze are those of the former CSA & Oklahoma (which, had it been a state at the time, I suspect would have been in the CSA). State specific developments outside of the former CSA states, such as LI litigation related developments, a lack of inmates who have run out of appeals, and/or diminishing political will for executions, are highlighting the historical geographical disparity. Put another way, LI is serving to accentuate one of the peculiarities of the modern death penalty – the crime committed matters less than the locale where it was committed when it comes to who lives and who dies. [h/t Doug Berman]
