Despite the recent spate of federal executions, a report released Wednesday by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) reveals record-low state executions and new death sentences in 2020.

Seventeen people were executed this year, of whom 10 were executed by the federal government. This is the first time in American history that federal executions exceeded state executions. The Trump administration performed more executions within the last six months of his presidency than any other president in the past two centuries.

According to the report, these capital cases all exemplified flaws with the death penalty, including racial inequality and questions surrounding the constitutionality of executing young offenders and individuals with serious mental illnesses or intellectual disabilities.

DPIC Executive Director Robert Dunham noted that the federal policies are out of step with what is happening in the states, where the use of the death penalty continued to decline in 2020. This trend is undoubtedly impacted by COVID-19 concerns. Jury trials have been suspended across the country, and executions threaten to worsen the spread of the virus in prisons. But, even before the pandemic, states were still on track for another year of record lows.

Trends suggest that states will continue to move away from the death penalty in the coming years. Colorado became the twenty-second state to abolish it in 2020. California legislators recently announced a constitutional amendment to abolish the death penalty that residents will vote on in 2024.

Dunham predicted that the US might also see Republican-controlled states move to abolish capital punishment. Louisiana and Utah completed 10 years without an execution in 2020. The economic impact of the pandemic may lead fiscal conservatives to reconsider whether the death penalty is worth the exorbitant cost.

The growing number of exonerations and greater awareness may also persuade voters and legislators to move away from capital punishment, said Dunham. Five people sentenced to death were exonerated in 2020, increasing the total number of exonerations since 1973 to 172.

2020’s protests for racial justice have encouraged people to take a hard stance against the death penalty. With renewed momentum against the death penalty in the wake of recent high-profile federal executions, it is possible that 2021 will reflect the declining death penalty trends of 2020.