the number of people sentenced to death last year in the United States fell to the lowest level since the US Supreme Court reinstated the penalty in 1976.

the Bush administration decided to pull out of an international agreement that opponents of the death penalty have used to fight the sentences of foreigners on death row in the United States, officials said.

the White House has ordered state courts to consider the complaints of 51 Mexican foreign nationals on death row in the United States, International Herald Tribune reported.

the US Supreme Court ruled the US Constitution generally forbids the use of shackles for a defendant at a sentencing hearing to determine whether the death penalty will be imposed.

a legislative committee rejected a bill on April 12 aimed at reinstating the state's death penalty, which a court had suspended last year.

preliminary data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Report for 2004 found that murders in the U. S. dropped last year by 3.6%. The number of executions also declined in 2004.

the NACDL's Spring Meeting will be held in New York from April 14 to April 17, 2005. An important occasion to be involved in the ever-expanding International Criminal Law arena.

American researchers have called for a halt to lethal injection, the most common method of execution in the United States, because it is not always a humane and painless way to die.

the US Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by Jose Medellin, a Mexican man facing execution in Texas, in a closely watched test-case on whether World Court rulings on capital cases apply to US courts.

a US military jury sentenced Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar to death for killing two officers in a grenade and rifle attack on his comrades in Kuwait two years ago

the US government asked a federal judge to set an October start date for the much-delayed trial of accused September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.

a US state supreme court has quashed a death sentence handed down to Robert Harlan because jurors consulted the Bible in reaching their verdict. The Colorado Supreme Court on March 28 ruled that the Bible, which includes the premise of "eye for an eye" justice, constituted an improper outside influence and a reliance on what the judges called a "higher authority."