Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

On October 2 the Death Penalty Information Center released a new report, The 2% Death Penalty: How a Minority of Counties Produce Most Death Cases at Enormous Costs to All. The report shows that, con­trary to the assump­tion that the death penal­ty is wide­ly used in the U.S., only a few juris­dic­tions employ cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment exten­sive­ly. Only 2% of the coun­ties in the U.S. have been respon­si­ble for the major­i­ty of cas­es lead­ing to exe­cu­tions since 1976. Likewise, only…

An analy­sis of the death penal­ty in Utah shows how rarely it has been used in recent years. Prosecutors have sought it in only 7 cas­es in the last 5 years, and none has result­ed in a death sen­tence. Utah has had only 1 exe­cu­tion in the past 13 years. Experts have offered sev­er­al rea­sons for the declin­ing use: the alter­na­tive sen­tence of life with­out parole is now ava­ial­ble; the appeal of a death sen­tence is cost­ly and slow; and many vic­tims’ fam­i­lies wish to see a more timely…

A recent Boston Globe edi­to­r­i­al called on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder not to seek the death penal­ty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man accused of car­ry­ing out the bomb­ing at the Boston Marathon. The edi­tors said the lengthy death-penal­­ty process would put the spot­light on the defen­dant to the detri­ment of the victims: ​“Years of pro­ceed­ings, and their poten­tial cul­mi­na­tion in a death sen­tence, would also give Tsarnaev what he and his broth­er appar­ent­ly sought: publicity and…

On September 26, the Joint Task Force to Review the Administration of Ohio​’s Death Penalty vot­ed 15 – 2 to rec­om­mend a ban on death sen­tences for peo­ple with severe men­tal ill­ness. The pan­el of legal experts was cre­at­ed by the Ohio Supreme Court and the Ohio State Bar Association and includes judges, attor­neys, and leg­is­la­tors. Their pro­pos­al will be sub­mit­ted with oth­er rec­om­men­da­tions to the gov­er­nor and the General Assembly in 2014. Terry Russell, executive…

Grave Injustice, a new book by Richard Stack, presents a crit­i­cal exam­i­na­tion of the death penal­ty through pro­files of indi­vid­u­als who were exe­cut­ed but may have been inno­cent. Their sto­ries are used to illus­trate flaws in the death penal­ty, includ­ing faulty eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, gov­ern­ment mis­con­duct, and inef­fec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion. In exam­in­ing these prob­lems, Stack writes that the pos­si­ble end of the death penalty ​“will not be based on its immorality…but on…

Legislators in Kansas have said they may debate the repeal of the death penal­ty in 2014. Senate Vice President Jeff King said a recent ses­sion on oth­er crim­i­nal jus­tice issues indi­cat­ed a need for a broad­er dis­cus­sion of sen­tences for mur­der. Senator David Haley, who sup­ports repeal of the death penal­ty, said, ​“I believe now is the time for a dis­cus­sion among those in the Legislature who con­sid­er reli­gion a main part of their pub­lic ser­vice to decide whether it’s necessary…

One of the nation’s lead­ing aca­d­e­m­ic experts on the death penal­ty has writ­ten a new arti­cle describ­ing how the con­tro­ver­sy sur­round­ing lethal injec­tions has great­ly inten­si­fied since the Supreme Court’s rul­ing on the sub­ject in 2008 (Baze v. Rees). Deborah Denno, a law pro­fes­sor at Fordham University, ana­lyzed over 300 court deci­sions in the last five years cit­ing Baze. She found there have been more changes in lethal injec­tion pro­to­cols in that time than in…

On September 19 the Ohio Court of Appeals affirmed a low­er court’s dis­missal of all charges against Thomas Keenan, a for­mer death row inmate sen­tenced to death for a 1988 mur­der. The appeals court also barred the state from retry­ing Keenan. His co-defen­­dant, Joseph D’Ambrosio, was ful­ly exon­er­at­ed in 2012 based on sim­i­lar state mis­con­duct to that found in Keenan’s tri­al. Keenan’s con­vic­tion was over­turned by a U.S. District Court in 2012…

Perspectives on Capital Punishment in America is a col­lec­tion of short schol­ar­ly pieces on the death penal­ty sys­tem. The essays stem from the late Justice Thurgood Marshall’s belief that ​“death is dif­fer­ent” and thus must be treat­ed spe­cial­ly with­in the judi­cial sys­tem. The book exam­ines issues such as wrong­ful con­vic­tions in cap­i­tal cas­es, death qual­i­fi­ca­tion of jurors, the cost of the death penal­ty, felony mur­der rules, and the death penal­ty’s place in the Uniform…

A recent poll spon­sored by the Boston Globe found that a sig­nif­i­cant major­i­ty of Boston res­i­dents favor life with­out parole over the death penal­ty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomb­ing sus­pect. Fifty-sev­en per­cent (57%) of respon­dents sup­port­ed a sen­tence of life with­out parole if Tsarnaev is con­vict­ed, com­pared with only 33% who favored the death penal­ty. Sixty-one (61) per­cent of Democrats and 49% of Republicans (a plu­ral­i­ty) sup­port­ed a sentence of…