Fewer Idaho prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in murder cases in recent years.
The Idaho Statesman reports that only two counties, ada and Canyon, have asked for the death penalty in murder cases since 2003, and Ada County prosecutors haven’t pursued capital punishment since jurors declined to find two defendants eligible for the death penalty in 2005.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7 years ago that juries, not judges, must issue the death penalty.
Only one person has been executed in Idaho in the past 50 years – double murderer Keith Eugene Wells dropped all appeals and died by lethal injection in 1994. (AP, Idaho Statesman)
