Eight years after the death penalty was reinstated in New York, the number of death sentences sought by prosecutors has sharply declined. According to the New York Capital Defender Office, the number of death penalty notices filed has dropped from a record-high 14 in 1998 to just two so far in 2003. Howard R. Relin, a long-time district attorney in Rochester and death penalty supporter, noted: “D.A.’s are being more and more careful in making that determination. There’s a sense of realism that has set in to prosecutors around New York State, as a result of the jury verdicts we have seen throughout the state.” Richard Brown, the Queens district attorney, added that prosecutors have come to understand that the suffering of murder victims’ relatives is often prolonged in death penalty cases because of the years of legal warfare and that capital cases are a drain on prosecutors’ time and budgets. He stated, “Particularly at a time of fiscal crisis, it is very difficult to justify taking experienced prosecutors away from handling other violent felonies.” Death sentencing has also been declining in other states around the country. (New York Times, September 21, 2003) See New York and Life Without Parole.