The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area of execution by firing squad if lethal injection is deemed too costly or unavailable.168 In line with this development, lawmakers in South Carolina also introduced a bill allowing the use of nitrogen gas in executions, if drugs for lethal injection are unavailable. This bill is currently on hold. Nebraska, which had previously passed legislation repealing the death penalty, saw a ballot initiative called to reverse the decision to abolish capital punishment in the state. The abolition of the death penalty remains on hold until after a referendum in November 2016. On 12 January 2016, the United States Supreme Court struck down Florida’s death penalty sentencing system.169 The Supreme Court found the state’s sentencing unconstitutional because judges were given full discretion in death penalty sentences (juries’ had purely an advisory role). The Court held that the Sixth Amendment requires a jury, not a judge to find each fact necessary to impose a sentence of death. In response to this ruling, the Florida State Senate passed Bill 7068, conditioning the imposition of capital punishment upon a jury vote of at least 10-2 in favor of death.170 The decision in Florida triggered Delaware to look into its own capital punishment sentencing scheme. As noted in the report to the United Nations Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review from 14 September 2015, the United States does not accept recommendations to establish a national moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.171 However, the United States did partially support recommendations not to impose the death penalty on people with mental or intellectual disabilities, committing to this restriction under international law only to the extent that it meets standards established by the United States Supreme Court.172 Statistics During the reporting period, 18 people were sentenced to death in the United States. Belarus sentenced three people during this time. While, in Belarus, all court statistics and data on death penalty cases fall within the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus, there are no comprehensive public official statistics on death 168  American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, “ACLU of MS Statement on Passage of SB 2237 – Execution Secrecy Bill”, 25 March 2016, <https://www.aclu-ms.org/news/2016/03/25/aclu-ms-statement-passage-sb-2237-execution-secrecy-bill>. 169  U.S. Supreme Court in Hurst v. Florida, No. 14-7505, 12 January 2016, <https://www.supremecourt.gov/ opinions/15pdf/14-7505_5ie6.pdf>. 170  See Senate Bill 7068 at <https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2016/7068/BillText/c1/HTML> and House Bill 7101, <https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2016/7101>. 171  Addendum, “Views and conclusions and/or recommendations, voluntary commitments and replies presented by the State under review”, (14 September 2015), A/HRC/30/12/Add.1, para. 8, <http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session30/Pages/ListReports.aspx>. 172  See, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Appendix to the Addendum to the Report on the Second Universal Periodic Review of the United States of America, <http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session22/US/AdditionalInfo_US_22session.pdf>. 43