If the Supreme Court ever abolishes the death penalty, we must thank Justice Breyer

After decades of effort, Breyer argued, the death penalty machinery was collapsing under the weight of its defects. In 86 percent of U.S. counties, Breyer wrote, “there is effectively no death penalty.” The average time between sentencing and execution — in those few cases where executions actually occur — had stretched to nearly 18 years, as backlogged lower courts attempted to give each appeal the promised scrutiny. Roughly half of all condemned inmates had lived on death row for 15 years or more.