These state by state comparisons are fascinating in part because they are in the main, not at all surprising, yet every once in a while there are some interesting anomalies.
Take this map published by the Economist, (via Hullabaloo), showing those states with and without a death penalty (also imparting some information about the frequency of state sponsored killings):
Quite predictably, the states that have no death penalty are, in the main, in the northeast sector. New England is now death penalty free, with the exception of New Hampshire, which retains the penalty, but doesn't carry it out (though in theory, they allow hanging there.)
The surprises are West Virginia and, perhaps less so, Alaska. Another, depressingly, is Ohio. But the good news is (and this counts as a good news post) that the blue area is spreading, both de facto and de jure. Why, in just a few decades, we may catch up with the rest of the civilized world.
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