The Associated Press reports that the number of inmates sentenced to death for their crimes fell sharply in 2001:

"A total of 155 inmates in the United States received a death sentence in 2001, the smallest number in 28 years, according to a Justice Department report released on Sunday. The third straight annual decline occurred at a time of growing national debate about capital punishment, sparked in part by recent exonerations of death-row inmates because of DNA evidence and calls for more state moratoriums on executions."

"The report by the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics found a steady decline in the number of inmates who received a death sentence, with 304 in 1998, 282 in 1999 and 229 in 2000."

"The number put on death row last year represented the lowest figure since the 1973 total of 44 inmates."

Oklahoma executed the most people in 2001, with 18, followed by 17 put to death in Texas and seven in Missouri. Preliminary statistics for this year show that Texas conducted 33 of the 68 executions nationwide.

Other statistics from the report:

Three states housed 40 percent of all death row inmates at the end of 2001: California, with 603; Texas, 453; and Florida, 372. New Hampshire was the only capital punishment state with no one on death row.

The youngest person on death row in 2001 was 19, the oldest 86.

Some states still authorize, in certain circumstances, electrocution, use of gas, hanging and -- in Idaho, Oklahoma and Utah -- death by firing squad.

Ninety people had their death sentences removed or overturned by the courts in 2001, with Florida leading the way with 11. Of the 90, 46 inmates now are serving life sentences, and most of the others were awaiting new trials or sentencing hearings.

Seven inmates had death sentences commuted. Nineteen death row inmates died while awaiting execution.