Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

On March 28, two letters were sent to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice — one from members of the law enforcement community and the other from judges, raising concerns about the state’s death penalty. Thirty law enforcement officers, including current and former prosecutors, police chiefs and other officers, signed a letter stating that “California’s death penalty is broken.” The letter cites multiple reasons why the state’s death penalty system is not working, such…

On March 24, Maryland lawmakers voted to create a commission to study the state’s death penalty. The House voted 89 – 48 and the Senate by 32 – 15 to establish the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment to research racial, socio-economical, and geographic disparities in the application of the death penalty as well as evaluate the risk of executing an innocent person. The commission will consider the costs of the death penalty as compared to a sentence of life without parole. Its findings and…

A recent Arizona Legal Studies paper on murder cases in Missouri found both geographical and racial disparities in the application of the death penalty. “Life and Death Decisions: Prosecutorial Discretion and Capital Punishment in Missouri,” by Katherine Barnes of Arizona University Law School, and David Sloss and Stephen Thaman of St. Louis Univeristy Law School, studied 1046 cases of intentional homicide in Missouri to determine geographical and racial effects in the rates at which…

On March 25, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6 – 3 in Medellin v. Texas (No. 06 – 984) that the President does not have the authority to order states to bypass their procedural rules and comply with a ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The case arose from an appeal by Jose Medellin, a Mexican citizen on Texas’ death row who, along with 50 other Mexican death row inmates, filed suit in the ICJ alleging a violation of their rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The…

On March 20, the Georgia State Senate overwhelmingly (44 – 7) rejected a proposal that would have allowed non-unanimous jury sentencing verdicts in capital cases. The proposal would have permitted a judge to impose a death sentence when at least 10 of 12 jurors supported it. Current Georgia law requires that the jury vote unanimously for a death sentence. Some opponents of the bill said it would have put Georgia’s entire death penalty law in jeopardy. (All other death penalty states that allow…

A recent Harris Interactive poll of over 1,000 American adults found that the number of people who oppose the death penalty has increased since 2003. Thirty-percent (30%) of those sampled oppose the death penalty, an increase of 8 percentage points in the past 5 years. The percentage of respondents who “believe in capital punishment” has dropped significantly since 1997, when 75% supported the death penalty. In 2008, that number had declined to 63%, the lowest number in recent years. The poll…

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7 – 2 on March 19 that the conviction and death sentence of Allen Snyder should be overturned because the trial judge allowed a potential juror to be rejected on what appeared to be racial grounds. The decision, written by Justice Samuel Alito, focused on the elimination of an African-American man from jury panel. The Court rejected the prosecution’s non-racial reasons for striking this juror: “The implausibility of this explanation is reinforced by the prosecutor’s…

U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that he hopes that the Guantanamo prisoners accused of terrorism do not receive the death penalty in the upcoming Military Commission trials because it would give them the martyrdom that they want. In a recent talk to British economic students, Mukasey said he supports the death penalty, but, “In a way I kind of hope from a personal standpoint … I kind of hope they don’t get it. Because many of them want to be martyrs ….” Prosecuting attorneys for the…