---
title: "HIGHLIGHTS From DPIC's Year End Report"
description: 'The Death Penalty Information Center’s 2003 Year End Report features a series of significant death penalty developments from the past year, including…'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/highlights-from-dpics-year-end-report'
section: news
date: '2003-12-31T22:25:41-05:00'
updated: '2025-03-14T14:23:03-04:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

The **Death Penalty Information Center's 2003 Year End Report** features a series of significant death penalty developments from the past year, including:

- The number of executions dropped by 8% from 71 in 2002 to 65 in 2003.
- After steady increases from 1976 to 2000, the size of death row has decreased. In 2003, the number of death row inmates declined by 5%, the third decrease in as many years.
- The number of people sentenced to death also continued to decline in 2003, down from 159 in 2002 to a projected 139 in 2003. This is about a 50% drop from the high number of death sentences in the late 1990s of approximately 300 per year.
- The South was responsible for 89% of the executions in 2003. Eleven states, but only three outside of the South, conducted executions in 2003, the fewest states in a decade.
- Ten individuals were exonerated from death row in 2003, tying the record for the most exonerations in a single year.
- Public support for capital punishment reached its lowest level in 25 years. An October 2003 Gallup Poll found 64% of respondents supporting capital punishment, down from 70% in 2002.

The 2003 Year End Report has been featured on National Public Radio, and in publications such as The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Houston Chronicle, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Law.com, Bet.com, and various newswires. In a lead editorial about these death penalty developments, The Washington Post noted:

> This year saw some significant breakthroughs in efforts to reform the death penalty, a movement that has been driven by the flood of wrongly convicted people freed from death row.   
>  . . .   
> Capital punishment in America will not disappear all of a sudden. But if serious reform efforts continue and the penalty becomes ever more regional in its application, it could begin to fade away. (Washington Post, December 28, 2003)

 Read DPIC's 2003 [Year End Report](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/reports/year-end/2003YearEndRpt.pdf). Read DPIC's [Press Release](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/YER03-PR.pdf).