The number of US state and federal inmates sent to prison under death sentences dropped to a 30-year-low in 2003 after declining for the third consecutive year.
There were 3,374 death row inmates on December 31st, 2003 - 188 fewer than a year earlier. During 2003, 144 inmates entered prison under death sentences, the lowest number since 1973, according to the US Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).
According to the agency, 3,601 inmates were on death row at the end of 2000; 3,577 at the end of 2001 and 3,562 on the last day of 2002.
In 2003, 267 inmates had their death sentences overturned or removed with 60 per cent of the changes occurring in Illinois, the BJS reported.
Former Illinois Governor George Ryan commuted 155 death sentences and granted four pardons, clearing out the state's death row in January.
Among the 38 states with capital punishment laws in 2003, California held the most death row inmates with 629, followed by Texas (453), Florida (364) and Pennsylvania (230), the BJS reported.