US Death Sentences Hit 30-Year Low in 2003
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The number of US state and federal inmates sent to prison under death sentences dropped to a 30-year-low in 2003 as they declined for the third consecutive year, the US Justice Department said Sunday.
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Big cities were less deadly places to live in 2004 as murder rates declined in several urban areas, including New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., according to a survey by The Associated Press.
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This December is the first month in  over a decade that no U.S. prisoner will be executed,  reflecting what experts say is a gradual shift in America's  views toward punishing its most violent criminals.
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Shortly after his third suicide attempt, serial killer Michael Ross wrote that life on death row was increasingly unbearable. He described the isolation of sitting in his cell 23 hours a day for years amid the endless slamming of metal and dark thoughts of his own horrific crimes and his impending execution.
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The number of terrorism cases brought by the Justice Department has fallen sharply since 2002, according to a new study.
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The Supreme Court on Wednesday struggled to assess the morality and propriety of states&#39; executing murderers who killed at age 16 or 17 - the ultimate punishment carried out in few places outside the United States.
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It was the third annual decline, though it was smaller than those seen in the previous two years. &quot;Nearly 7.4-million people reported just over $30.
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CHICAGO, Sept. 6 -- Former governor George H. Ryan, who won global attention for emptying Illinois's death row, was sentenced to 6 1/2  years in prison Wednesday for a decade of tawdry corruption and official lies that he minimized to the end.
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KIGALI, Rwanda, July 16 -- An Ethiopian judge handed life sentences  instead of the death penalty to 30 of the country's top political opposition leaders Monday in a trial  the prisoners have called a sham.
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WASHINGTON - The number of people sentenced to death reached a 30-year low in 2003, when the Death Row population fell for the third year in a row, signaling the continuation of a slow trend away from state- and federally ordered executions, according to
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Texas remained the most active death penalty state in 2004 with 23 executions, down from a year ago and about average for the past decade. But legal experts and death penalty opponents suggest there are signs that increased judicial scrutiny is giving pause to juries and prosecutors considering capital punishment.
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Plans to give murderers lighter sentences if they plead guilty have been watered down.
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Former Gov. George Ryan, who was acclaimed by capital punishment foes for suspending executions in Illinois and emptying out death row, was sentenced Wednesday to 6 1/2 years behind bars in the corruption scandal that ruined his political career.
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The Supreme Court struggled today over whether the time has come to end the death penalty for young murderers. Two years ago, the court in a 6-3 decision struck down capital
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A US state is to abolish the death penalty for the first time in 40 years following 44-36 vote
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More than 940 people have been executed since the United States reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Not one was in New England.
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Alcohol abuse kills some 75,000 Americans each year and shortens the lives of these people by an average of 30 years, a U.S. government study suggested on Thursday.