Even as the use of the death penal­ty con­tin­ued to decline in the United States, the num­ber of mur­ders and the nation­al mur­der rate dropped in 2004. According to the recent­ly released FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2004, the nation’s mur­der rate fell by 3.3%, declin­ing to 5.5 mur­ders per 100,000 peo­ple in 2004. By region, the Northeast, which accounts for less than 1% of all U.S. exe­cu­tions, con­tin­ued to have the nation’s low­est mur­der rate, 4.2. The Midwest had a mur­der rate of 4.7, and the mur­der rate in the West was 5.7. The South, which has car­ried out more than 80% of all U.S. exe­cu­tions, again had the nation’s high­est mur­der rate, 6.6. (FBI Uniform Crime Report 2004, released October 2005). In 2004, the num­ber of exe­cu­tions, the num­ber of death sen­tences, and the size of death row all declined com­pared to 2003. See Deterrence and Executions.

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