Mirroring a nationwide decline in both executions and death row population, Maryland’s death row has fallen by 50% in recent years and the state has not carried out an execution since 1998. An in-depth review of Maryland’s death row by The Washington Post found that the state’s death row has dropped from a population of 18 to 9, largely due to reversals in cases and the impact of court rulings elsewhere. Victims’ families, emotionally frayed by the years of appeals, are also telling prosecutors not to seek death in instances where inmates win resentencing, and many juries are choosing to sentence capital defendants to life without parole. Only two men have joined Maryland’s death row since June 2000, and many more have been removed. Nationally, there were 50% fewer death sentences handed down in 2003 compared with 1999. Both the number of inmates on death row and the number of executions declined in 2003. (Washington Post, February 6, 2004) See DPIC’s 2003 Year End Report (noting that last year also had a record-tying number of exonerations from death row).