Washington, D.C.

Death sentences fall to record low

The number of people sentenced to death last year fell to the lowest level since the Supreme Court reinstated the penalty in 1976.

There were 125 people sent to death row in 2004, down from 144 the previous year and the sixth consecutive annual decline, according to figures compiled by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. In 1998, 300 people received death sentences.

Texas sent the most people to death row last year — 23 — followed by California, which sent 11, and Florida and Alabama, which each sent 8.

There were 3,374 prisoners awaiting execution at the end of 2003, the latest year for which figures are available from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. That was 188 fewer than the previous year, due largely to then-Illinois Gov. George Ryan granting clemency to all 167 inmates on his state’s death row because of concerns about wrongful convictions.

New York City

Wal-Mart to restrict sales of cold medicines

All Wal-Mart stores will move many nonprescription cold and allergy medications behind pharmacy counters by June because they include an ingredient used to make the illegal stimulant methamphetamine, the company said Monday.

Wal-Mart joins rivals Target Corp. and Albertson’s Inc. in making such a move throughout all locations. The stores are trying to make it more difficult for customers to easily obtain medications containing pseudoephedrine, which is a key component for making methamphetamine. Popular over-the-counter medications such as Sudafed, Sinutab and Afrin nasal spray list pseudoephedrine among their active ingredients.

A new Kansas law limiting access to products containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine went into effect last week. They can now be sold only through pharmacies.

Colorado

Stranded, injured skier rescued after week

A cross-country skier stranded in the backcountry with little food or water for eight days — at one time crawling on his elbows because of a broken leg — was rescued Monday after searchers heard his emergency whistle.

Charles Horton, 55, was hospitalized in fair condition with minor frostbite, mild hypothermia and dehydration in addition to a broken leg, authorities said.

Temperatures dipped into the 20s at midweek when a cold front moved through, but little snow fell, National Weather Service meteorologist Dave Nadler said. Horton slept under trees and set fires to stay warm.

Horton, a massage therapist and experienced outdoorsman, broke his leg April 17 on what was to have been a one-day ski trip near his Steamboat Springs home, about 100 miles northwest of Denver.

He wasn’t reported missing until Sunday, a week later, because he hadn’t told anyone when he expected to return.

Washington, D.C.

35 more wild horses killed after roundup

Thirty-five more wild horses rounded up in the West were slaughtered Monday, but the Interior Department acted quickly to save the lives of 52 other mustangs by enlisting last-minute financial help from Mustang sports car maker Ford Motor Co.

The horses killed came from a broker who obtained them from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. The tribe traded 87 of the 105 aging horses it bought from the government for younger ones. Interior officials said they would review the arrangement to see if it violated a federal contract with the agency. Tribal officials were unavailable for comment.

“It’s incredibly disappointing,” said Kathleen Clarke, director of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management. “It is not our intent to have these animals killed. That’s why we acted very aggressively.”

The latest killings bring to 41 the number of wild horses slaughtered since Congress removed protections for mustangs in December.