The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area 2007 pending the Court’s determination of whether death by electrocution constituted cruel and unusual punishment. On 8 February 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment because the evidence proved that electrocution inflicts “intense pain and agonizing suffering”.51 This decision recognized the right of the legislature to vote to retain the death penalty, but that the method selected must not violate individual rights under the state constitution.52 Statistics The Bureau of Justice Statistics is the unit of the US Department of Justice responsible for collecting, analysing, publishing, and disseminating information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government.53 Death sentences The total number of civilian death-row inmates in early 2008 was 3,262.54 Executions In recent practice, the death penalty has primarily been exercised at the state level; the federal government has not executed anyone since 2003. Similarly, under the UCMJ, no one has been put to death since 1961.55 Between 1 July 2007 and 30 June 2008, 21 inmates were executed. Of these, nine executions were carried out in Texas, two in Alabama, two in Georgia, two in Oklahoma, two in South Carolina, one in Mississippi, one in South Dakota, one in Tennessee, and one in Virginia.56 The number of executions in the United States decreased between July 2007 and June 2008, compared to the previous 12-month period. The number of inmates sentenced to death also decreased in 2007, consistent with a pattern of decreasing death sentences since 2000.57 51  See State v. Mata, Nebraska Supreme Court, 9 February 2008. 52  “Nebraska Supreme Court Rules Electrocution Unconstitutional”, Death Penalty Information Center, op. cit., note 48; “State Court Says Electric Chair Unconstitutional”, Hands Off Cain, op. cit., note 48. 53  US response, op. cit., note 38. 54  Ibid. 55  Ibid. 56  Ibid. 57  Ibid.