The number of people sentenced to death last year fell to the lowest level since the Supreme Court reinstated the penalty in 1976.
There were 125 people sent to death row in 2004, down from 144 the previous year and the sixth consecutive annual decline, according to figures compiled by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. In 1998, 300 people received death sentences.
Miriam Gohara, assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said exonerations based on DNA evidence are one major cause of the decline. She said jurors are less willing to impose the penalty when they see that the system occasionally fails.
In addition, the Supreme Court has issued decisions narrowing the death penalty, putting a stop to the execution of juveniles, the insane and the mentally retarded.
More jurisdictions also are providing jurors with sentencing options other than death, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
In his State of the Union address this year, President Bush called for more training for lawyers who represent accused killers, tacit recognition that not all suspects receive an adequate defense.
As governor of Texas, a state that executes more inmates than any other, Bush commuted one death sentence and allowed 152 executions.
