Duval County, Florida, Leader in Death Sentences

(Click to enlarge) According to a report by the Christian Science Monitor, Duval County, Florida, has the highest per capita rate for inmates on death row of any U.S. county. Duval has sentenced one person to death for every 14,000 residents. It is among the 2% of counties in the U.S. reponsible for a majority of all inmates on death row as of 2013, as described in DPIC’s report, The 2% Death Penalty. Duval County ranked 8th, with 60 inmates on death row. Duval has handed down 14 death sentences in the last 5 years. As a s state, Florida had the second highest number of death sentences in 2013, behind only California. Florida’s unusual sentencing procedures, which allow a simple majority of the jury to recommend a death sentence, may explain some of Duval’s high sentencing numbers, but experts also point to cultural factors. Seth Kotch, a historian from the University of North Carolina, said, “We know that the best predictor of execution is previous execution, which suggests that a courthouse or a county can get into a habit of doing things, and those habitual behaviors are informed by cultural cues about crime and punishment.”

(P. Jonsson, “The view from the US county where death penalty invoked the most, per capita,” Christian Science Monitor, November 29, 2014). See Arbitrariness. Read DPIC’s report, “The 2% Death Penalty: How a Minority of Counties Produce Most Death Cases at Enormous Costs to All” (2013).