WP:Death Sentences at 30-Yr Low in US(DOJ doesn't return call for comment)

[DeepModem Mom]

Death Sentences Hit 30-Year Low in U.S.
Activists See Shift in Juries' Attitudes

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 15, 2004; Page A02


The number of U.S. convicts imprisoned with death sentences dropped in 2003 to its lowest level in 30 years, helping to provoke the third straight annual decline in the nation's death row population and signaling the continuation of a slow trend away from state- and federally ordered executions, according to data released yesterday by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The data stirred activists to speculate that support for the death penalty is dropping among jury panels, which in many states now are the only groups eligible to impose it. Only 144 new inmates incarcerated in 2003 were sentenced to execution, well below an annual average of 297 between 1994 and 2000, the bureau's report stated.

The number of executions that were carried out also dropped, from 71 in 2002 to 65 in 2003, while the average length of time between death row sentencings and executions continued to grow. More than 40 percent of those on death row are now imprisoned in three states -- California, Texas and Florida -- while more than two-thirds of the executions were carried out in Texas, Oklahoma and North Carolina.

The Justice Department -- led in recent years by an attorney general who strongly supports the death penalty -- did not return a phone call seeking comment about the data. But Robin M. Maher, director of the American Bar Association's Death Penalty Representation Project, said, "The declining figures probably indicate a loss of confidence in the fairness and reliability of the death penalty."...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49905-2004Nov14.html

[shuffnew]

1. Hmmm.. Wonder which states had the highest decline?

The article you linked to:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49905-2004Nov14.html

states that: "More than 40 percent of those on death row are now imprisoned in three states -- California, Texas and Florida -- while more than two-thirds of the executions were carried out in Texas, Oklahoma and North Carolina."

Maybe there's a decline since 2000 due to Gov. moving to the WH and out of Texas government :think: (notice Texas is listed in both the imprisoned category and the # of executions category).

This article didn't break out the decline from any of these states though (prior and current stats comparison not available on that article, but likely elsewhere we could find it)to compare by any specific state that might have contributed to the overall reported decline.

SHUFFNEW: DEMOCRAT FROM TEXAS

[bluedeminredstate]

2. That's probably why Ashcroft left.

He couldn't take it.