Death Penalty on the Verge of Being Repealed in Two States

The tide may be shifting on the death penalty as two states are close to abolishing it. 

On Monday, the Montana Senate passed a bill to abolish the death penalty and the New Mexico House of Representatives passed a bill last week that would replace the death penalty with a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Six other states currently have pending legislation to abolish the death penalty.

Thirty-six states have the death penalty.  New Jersey abolished the death penalty in 2007, the first state to do so since the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976.