The Death Penalty

Executions Continue Five-Year Decline in 2004
A five-year decline in death sentences, a 40 percent drop in executions, a shrinking death row population, and waning public support for capital punishment have marked a significant turn around in the use of the death penalty.

2004 Execution - Cameron Todd Willingham #14
Cameron Willingham, a former auto mechanic, was sentenced to death for killing his three young children in the family’s house in Corsicana in December 1991.

2004 Executions - Norman Richard Cleary #13
Norman Cleary and accomplice Kenneth Chandler wanted to rob a house but when they came upon housekeeper Wanda Neafus, their plans changed. After leading her around the home she working at they took her downstairs and killed her.

2004 Executions - Bobby Ray Hopkins #12
Hopkins, a former bull rider, was convicted and sentenced to die for the brutal murders of 18-year-old Sandi Marbut and her 19-year-old cousin Jennifer Weston.

Death Penalty: The Only Justice for Killers?
If justice is served by putting a murderer to death, in what way is it served? Both sides offer strong arguments. With which do you agree?

Death Row Inmates (17)

Women on Death Row (11)

Women on Death Row
It is indeed rare for a woman to be given the death sentence in the United States. Of the 3,487 persons on death row in the U.S. as of June 2004, only 49 of them, or 1.3 percent, were women.

The Innocence Project: Wrongful Convictions
The Innocence Project was created by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld in 1992 at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law to examine cases in which postconviction DNA testing could yield conclusive proof of innocence.

Aggravating and Mitigating Factors
When deciding the sentencing for a defendant who has been found guilty, jurors in most states are asked to weigh the aggravating and mitigating circumstances of the case.

Supreme Court to Decide Juvenile Death Penalty Case
Those who want to see the death penalty for juveniles abolished are looking toward the case of Roper v. Simmons, which the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review to examine the constitutionality of executing juvenile offenders.

Doubts Remain After Crawford Execution in Georgia
The State of Georgia may have given opponents of capital punishment fuel for their argument when it executed 57-year-old Eddie Albert Crawford on July 19, 2004, for the 1984 murder of his two-year-old niece.

Murderer Scott Mink is Executed by Lethal Injection
Scott Mink is executed for the brutal murder of his parents, just three years after his sentencing date.

Ohio Executes Murderer, Stephen Vrabel
Stephen Vrabel was executed after be found guilty of killing his girlfriend and their 3-year old daughter.

2004 Executions - Edward Lewis Lagrone #11
Lagrone murdered a 10-year-old girl and her two elderly aunts after the girl's mother refused to withdraw rape charges she filed against him after discovering that her young daughter was pregnant by him.

2004 Executions - Johnny L. Robinson
Johnny L. Robinson kidnapped, raped and shot 31-year-old Beverly St. George who was stranded on the highway after her car broke down. He was the tenth murderer executed in the U.S. in 2004.

2004 Executions - Ynobe Katron Matthews #1
The first death row inmate to be executed in 2004 was convicted murderer Ynobe Katron Matthews. The state of Texas executed Matthews for strangling 21-year-old, Carolyn Casey.

2004 Executions - Charles Laverne Singleton #2
Charles Singleton was the second inmate executed in 2004 after sitting on death row for 24 years, making him the longest-serving death row inmate in Arkansas. He was convicted at the age of 44 for stabbing Mary Lou York, a grocery store owner who had befriended him.

2004 Executions - Raymond Dayle Rowsey #3
Raymond Dayle Rowsey was the third convicted murderer to be executed in the U.S. in 2004. He was sentenced to death in North Carolina after he brutally murdered 20-year-old Howard Rue Sikorski.

2004 Executions - Tyrone Peter Darks #4
Tyrone Peter Darks was the fourth convicted killer to be executed in the US in 2004. He was given the death penalty in Oklahoma after he killed his ex-wife.

2004 Executions - Lewis Williams, Jr. #5
Lewis Williams was the fifth convicted murderer to be executed in the US in 2004. Williams was found guilty of murdering his cousin's neighbor, 76-year-old Leoma Chmielewski.

2004 Executions - Kenneth Eugene Bruce #6
On February 27, 1992, Kenneth Eugene Bruce was sentenced to die for the capital murder of 55-year-old Helen Ayers. He was the sixth murderer to be executed in the U.S. in 2004.

2004 Executions - Kevin Lee Zimmerman #7
Kevin Zimmerman was the seventh murderer executed in the U.S. in 2004. He was sentenced to death for the brutal murder of Leslie Gilbert Hooks, Jr.

2004 Executions - Billy Frank Vickers #8
On January 28, 2004, Billy Frank Vickers was executed for the capital murder of Phillip Kinslow of Arthur City, Texas, which occurred on March 12, 1993. He was the eighth inmate executed in the U.S. in 2004.

2004 Executions - John Glenn Roe #9
On October 6, 1984, Roe murdered 21-year-old Donette Crawford while she was in route to pick up her 9-month-old baby. Roe kidnapped Donette, shot and killed her, took her car and money then used information about the murder to try to get out of serving time on other crimes he committed.

Death Penalty for Female Offenders
Reports that chronicle the exact dates of imposition and reversal or removal of the death sentence for female offenders from January 1, 1900 through June 30, 2003.

The Wrong Man
The prospect that innocent people will be executed in America is horrifyingly likely, Alan Berlow argues in this unsparing report on the criminal-justice system.