U.S. Death Sentences at 30-Year Low
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The number of convicts imprisoned with death sentences dropped in 2003, which is helping to provoke the third straight annual decline in the nation's death row population, according to data released Sunday.
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Growing concerns about making sure the innocent aren't sentenced to death has caused more Americans to support a moratorium on the death penalty.
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China has executed fewer people since the country's highest court was given authority to review death sentences at the start of this year, state media reported on Friday.
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Violent and property crime rates in the United States remained at their lowest levels in 30 years during 2003, the US Department of Justice said on Sunday.
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Americans are using the ultimate punishment less and less. But that doesn't mean it's on the way out.
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The US Supreme Court is to hear arguments on the legality of the death penalty for those who were 16 and 17 at the time of their crimes, although such punishment is increasingly rare in the 19 states that still allow it.
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OTTAWA (CP) - The national homicide rate dropped to its lowest level in more than 30 years last year, says Statistics Canada.
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WASHINGTON - Up to 28 U.S. soldiers face possible criminal charges in connection with the deaths of two prisoners at an American-run prison in Afghanistan two years ago, the Army announced Thursday...
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SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota  - South Dakota carried out its first execution in 60 years on Wednesday, putting to death a 25-year-old inmate convicted of torturing and killing a 19-year-old man following a robbery.
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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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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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_U.S. deaths as of Jan. 31, 2007: 3,080.
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About 16 students are murdered at U.S. schools each year, says a new government report that shows the number and rate of slayings has held steady and is lower than in the previous decade.
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The number of executions in the United States hit a 13-year low in 2007, mostly because of a de facto moratorium on the death penalty prompted by challenges to the use of lethal injection, according to a report by an anti-death-penalty information group.
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SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota  - Just minutes before   prison officials had planned to serve death row inmate Elijah   Page his last meal, South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds delayed the   state's first execution in 59 years until at least next July.
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Motorists who cause death on the roads could avoid jail under new official sentencing guidelines
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Thousands of criminals are filing for reduced sentences. Backlogged courts are asking lawyers to slow down their appeals. Judges say they're confused about what to do.