The Bureau of Justice Statistics released its lat­est report on the sta­tus of the death penal­ty in the U.S., Capital Punishment, 2004, on November 13. According to the report, the nation’s death row pop­u­la­tion, exe­cu­tions, and the num­ber of peo­ple giv­en death sen­tences last year all declined. There were 3,315 peo­ple on state and fed­er­al death rows at the con­clu­sion of 2004, 63 few­er than in 2003. Last year, 125 peo­ple were sen­tenced to death, the fewest since 1973. Twelve states exe­cut­ed 59 pris­on­ers in 2004, six few­er than in 2003. Those exe­cut­ed had been under a sen­tence of death for an aver­age of 11 years, which was one month longer than the peri­od for inmates exe­cut­ed in 2003. Of those under a sen­tence of death in 2004, 56% were white, 42% were black, and 13% were Hispanic (“Hispanic” is count­ed as an eth­nic­i­ty, rather than a race). (U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Capital Punishment, 2004, November 13, 2005). Read the report Capital Punishment, 2004. See also DPIC’s 2004 Year End Report.

This year, the nation will like­ly car­ry out the 1,000th exe­cu­tion since cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was rein­stat­ed. For analy­sis and infor­ma­tion about this upcom­ing event, read DPIC’s Press Release.

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