A national organization opposed to the death penalty says Missouri is one of a series of states in which no death penalties have been imposed this year … and says the number of death sentences nationwide in 2011 is the lowest for any year since the death penalty was reinstated by the courts in 1976. 

The Death Penalty Information Center says imposition of death sentences nationwide has dropped about 75 percent in the last 15 years.

The center says Missouri is one of only 13 states to carry out an execution this year. Martin Link was executed last February, only the second execution since the state executed five men in 2005.