DPIC Year-End Reports

The death penal­ty con­tin­ued its recent attri­tion in 2003, with exe­cu­tions, death sen­tences, and the death row pop­u­la­tion all low­er than a few years ago. Public sup­port for the death penal­ty dropped to its low­est lev­el in 25 years. At the same time, exon­er­a­tions from death row helped spur leg­isla­tive reforms in the cap­i­tal punishment…

In 2002, the death penal­ty con­tin­ued to come under increas­ing scruti­ny and its use became more geo­graph­i­cal­ly iso­lat­ed with­in the United States. Executions occurred almost exclu­sive­ly in the South, and one state, Texas, account­ed for three times as many as the total in the West, Midwest, and Northeast states…

Throughout 2001, grow­ing con­cerns about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment were reflect­ed in a series of leg­isla­tive changes to restrict the death penal­ty, and exe­cu­tions declined sharply for the sec­ond straight year. For the first time since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed, the num­ber of peo­ple on death row also appears to be…

The year 2000 was per­haps the most sig­nif­i­cant sin­gle year affect­ing death penal­ty opin­ion in United States his­to­ry. A broad change in the way the American pub­lic views cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was pre­cip­i­tat­ed by a steady sequence of eye-open­ing events, includ­ing releas­es from death row, reports on the unfair­ness of the process, and gov­ern­men­tal action to lim­it or halt the death…

The num­ber of exe­cu­tions in the U.S. in 1999 was the high­est for any year since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1976. There were 98 exe­cu­tions, one-third of them in Texas. This 44% increase in exe­cu­tions from last year is part­ly the result of a large num­ber of old­er cas­es fac­ing an expe­dit­ed fed­er­al and state appeals…