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WASHINGTON — The number of executions in the United States hit a 13-year low in 2007, mostly because of a de facto moratorium on the death penalty prompted by challenges to the use of lethal injection, according to a report by a group that opposes capital punishment.
There were 42 executions in 2007, down from 53 last year and the lowest number since 31 people were put to death in 1994, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
The most immediate reason is court challenges across the nation that focus on the constitutionality of the chemical combination used in lethal injections by all but one of the 36 states that have the death penalty.
