FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, April 25, 2005

CONTACT: Brenda Bowser
Office: (202) 293‑6970, x215
Cell: (301) 906‑4460
bbowser@​deathpenaltyinfo.​org

DEATH SENTENCES CONTINUED TO DECLINE IN 2004

WASHINGTON, DC – In 2004, 125 peo­ple were sen­tenced to death in the United States, the fewest num­ber since cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was rein­stat­ed in 1976. Death sen­tences have declined by more than 50% since the late 1990’s and the num­bers in 2004 rep­re­sent­ed a drop of 13% com­pared to 2003. The num­ber of sen­tences was down in every area of the coun­try, though fed­er­al death penal­ty sen­tences showed a marked increase in 2004. By com­par­i­son, 320 peo­ple were sen­tenced to death in 1996.

​“The many prob­lems asso­ci­at­ed with cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment are clear­ly impact­ing the num­ber of peo­ple sen­tenced to death each year,” said Richard Dieter, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). ​“Persistent ques­tions about whether the death penal­ty is applied accu­rate­ly and fair­ly have result­ed in greater skep­ti­cism about this prac­tice among the pub­lic, cap­i­tal jurors, and many state and nation­al offi­cials.”

These same fac­tors have also con­tributed to declines in exe­cu­tions, death row pop­u­la­tion, and pub­lic sup­port for the death penaly. In New York, the last state to adopt the death penal­ty in 1995, sim­i­lar con­cerns led state leg­is­la­tors to reject cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment two weeks ago.

The sen­tenc­ing fig­ures for 2004 are drawn from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s quar­ter­ly report Death Row USA. The Bureau of Justice Statistics will release its offi­cial num­ber of death sen­tences for 2004 lat­er this year. A spread­sheet con­tain­ing the sen­tenc­ing fig­ures for each state is here in PDF for­mat for your review.


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