Mirroring sta­tis­tics released this year in the Death Penalty Information Center’s Innocence Report, the Justice Department’s Capital Punishment, 2003 revealed that the nation’s death row is con­tin­u­ing to decline and that the amount of time between death sen­tenc­ing and exe­cu­tion has increased. Compiled by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the report not­ed that 3,374 inmates were on death row at the con­clu­sion of 2003, 188 few­er than a year ear­li­er. It also found that the aver­age elapsed time from sen­tenc­ing to exe­cu­tion increased to almost 11 years in 2003. In 2003, 267 peo­ple on death row had their death sen­tences over­turned or removed, the largest num­ber since 1976, a fig­ure that reflects the deci­sion of for­mer Illinois Governor George Ryan to com­mute 144 death sen­tences and par­don four men on death row pri­or to his leav­ing office. The Justice Department review not­ed that the num­ber exe­cu­tions and the num­ber of per­sons sen­tenced to death also declined last year. (Dept. of Justice Press Release, November 14, 2004). Read Capital Punishment, 2003. DPIC will be releas­ing its 2004 Year End Report in December. See DPIC’s Innocence Report.

Citation Guide