HOUSTON, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. juries are imposing the death penalty less and less, with even notorious killers avoiding the ultimate punishment in favor of life in prison.
Only 144 inmates were sent to death row in 2003, a 30-year low that is down from 320 in 1996, with brutal killers such as the Green River Killer, Washington-area sniper Lee Boyd Malvo and Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols all escaping capital punishment, the Christian Science Monitor reported.
The proliferation of DNA evidence exonerating convicted murderers has fomented a growing uneasiness with imposing death sentences among the American public. The high cost of prosecuting capital murder cases, a drop in the overall crime rate and states' growing practice of giving juries the option of sending convicts to prison without the possibility of parole are also cited as reasons for the decline in death sentences and executions across the country.
