Elsie Law's Daily Dose Of The Law

"Since the federal government got back into the death penalty business in 1988, attorneys generals have authorized 420 prosecutions. According to statistics kept by the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project: 180 during the 1990s, an average of 18 per year, and 240 since 2000, an average of 40 per year, mostly attributable to the Bush administration. Of the 420 authorized prosecutions, 162 actually reached trial and sentencing. Juries imposed 105 life sentences and 57 death sentences. Since 2001, the beginning of the Bush administration, there have been 32 federal defendants sentenced to death." -Marcia Coyle, National Law Journal, April 30, 2007