The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area–Background Paper 2017 were invited to attend the meeting.88 During the event the working group activity plan for 2017 was discussed. 2.1.2 United States of America The United States of America did not reply to the 2017 questionnaire covering the period between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017. Therefore, the section on the situation of the death penalty in the United States is based on information from international and regional human rights bodies, non-governmental organizations and media reports. Death sentences between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017 During the reporting period, 40 new death sentences were imposed in the United States. Thirty-eight death sentences were handed down by courts in 15 different states and two sentences were handed down by the United States Federal Government. Both, the states of Oregon and Pennsylvania have had a gubernatorial moratorium on executions in place since 2011 and 2015, respectively.89 Pennsylvania is waiting for the findings of the ad hoc Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment (hereinafter “Committee”), whose report was originally due in December 2013. The Committee, established under Senate Resolution 6 of 2011, is examining 17 aspects of capital punishment, including its cost, its impact on public safety, its potential for racial or economic bias, and whether there are sufficient safeguards against innocent people being executed.90 In the state of Oregon, on 10 November 2016, a jury composed of nine women and three men found David Ray Bartol guilty of aggravated murder after killing a fellow inmate. Bartol is the first person to be sentenced to death in Oregon since 2014. Despite this death sentence, Oregon’s Governor plans to uphold Oregon’s moratorium on capital punishment.91 In addition to Oregon and Pennsylvania, the states of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Kansas, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas have handed down death 88  “Председатель Совета Республики Мясникович М.В. встретился с докладчиком по Беларуси Комиссии ПАСЕ А.Ригони”, 23 March 2017, <http://www.sovrep.gov.by/ru/news-ru/view/mjasnikovich-vstrecha-rigoni-11498-2017/>. 89  “Pennsylvania Supreme Court Unanimously Upholds Governor’s Moratorium on Executions”, Death Penalty Information Center,<https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/6334> and “Brown to maintain death penalty moratorium”, Oregon Live, <http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2016/10/brown_to_maintain_ death_penalt.html>. 90  Riley Yates, “Three years late, seminal death penalty report still unfinished”, The Morning Call, 2 January 2017, <http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-pennsylvania-death-penalty-committee-still-delayed-20170102-story.html>; see also Sarah Mearhoff, “Pennsylvania carries out mock executions during death penalty moratorium”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 30 May 2017, <http://www.post-gazette.com/news/ state/2017/05/30/pennsylvania-death-penalty-mock-execution-eric-frein-corrections/stories/201705280115>. 91  Kristian Foden-Vencil, “Despite Execution Moratorium, Oregon Gives Another Inmate The Death Penalty”, Oregon Public Broadcasting, 29 November 2016, <http://www.opb.org/news/article/david-ray-bartol-oregondeath-row/>. 30