Death row numbers fall

The number of people sentenced to death and those executed declined in 2004 as the United States' death row population shrank.

Twelve states executed 59 prisoners, six fewer than in 2003, according to the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The report also said 125 people convicted of murder received a death sentence last year, the smallest number since 1973.

The number of prisoners on death row has declined four years in a row, the result of a murder rate now at its lowest level in 40 years.