Execution

New York Times:

For the first time in 59 years, the State of South Dakota plans to execute a man this evening, authorities from the state’s department of corrections have announced.

Barring a last minute granting of clemency, Elijah Page, 24, who pleaded guilty to the torture killing of a 19-year-old man whose house he was burglarizing in 2000, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 p.m. Tuesday, the department of corrections announced on Sunday.

Although capital punishment has been allowed in South Dakota for decades, it is one of a handful of states, including New Jersey and New Hampshire, that have carried out no executions since they most recently enacted such laws. In South Dakota, the most recent law allowing death sentences was enacted in 1979 after the United States Supreme Court restored capital punishment in 1976.

Since then, the state has had no executions, and has only four people, including Mr. Page, on death row. The state’s low population, relatively low crime rate and, some advocacy groups suggest, a culture not inclined toward capital punishment help explain the lack of executions.