Year-End Reports

By every mea­sure, the death penal­ty in the U.S. has been in decline since 1999 and the evi­dence from 2004 con­tin­ues that trend. Whether exam­in­ing death sen­tences, exe­cu­tions, the size of death row or pub­lic sup­port, cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment num­bers have dropped in a way not seen in over 30…

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…