Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina cit­ed the American Law Institute​’s deci­sion in 2009 to sep­a­rate itself from the death penal­ty sys­tem as anoth­er rea­son for the state to abol­ish the prac­tice. The ALI, whose mod­el death penat­ly stan­dards were instru­men­tal in the U.S. Supreme Court​’s deci­sion to allow the rein­state­ment of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in 1976, has recent­ly disavowed its…

The edi­tor of the edi­to­r­i­al page of the Palm Beach Post recent­ly called for an end to the death penal­ty in Florida. Citing DPIC​’s recent report on the costs of the death penal­ty, Randy Schultz notes that,​“Every objec­tive study shows that life impris­on­ment costs much less than sen­tenc­ing some­one to death.”​“Money,” he writes,​“dri­ves the new debate in Florida about crim­i­nal jus­tice.” In 2009, the state…

An edi­to­r­i­al in the Salt Lake Tribune recent­ly called for an end to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, stat­ing that​“the legal, moral and prac­ti­cal argu­ments against cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment have evolved from sound to unas­sail­able” since the pun­ish­ment was rein­stat­ed over 30 years ago. The edi­to­r­i­al points to the fal­li­bil­i­ty of the sys­tem as a major con­cern, cit­ing the Death Penalty Information Center​’s report that nine inmates have been…

Researchers from the University of Texas at Dallas recent­ly pub­lished a study on whether exe­cu­tions deter homi­cides using state pan­el date and employ­ing well-known econo­met­ric pro­ce­dures for pan­el analy­sis. The authors found​“no empir­i­cal sup­port for the argu­ment that the exis­tence or appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty deters prospec­tive offend­ers from com­mit­ting homi­cide.” The study was pub­lished in the jour­nal of Criminology and Public…

Los Angeles Chief of Police William Bratton recent­ly defend­ed San Francisco Distrist Attorney Kamala Harris for not seek­ing the death penal­ty against a sus­pect in a police killing.​“It’s much cheap­er to sen­tence them to life in prison and throw away the key,” said Bratton, who is endors­ing Harris in seek­ing elec­tion as California’s…

A recent study pub­lished by a Duke University econ­o­mist revealed North Carolina could save $11 mil­lion annu­al­ly if it dropped the death penal­ty. Philip J. Cook, a pro­fes­sor at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, cal­cu­lat­ed the extra state costs of the death penal­ty dur­ing fis­cal years 2005 and 2006. He cal­cu­lat­ed over $21 mil­lion worth of expens­es that would have been saved if the death penal­ty had been…