Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

Steven P. Grossman, a former New York City prosecutor and a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, recently wrote in The Baltimore Sun that the death penalty is “not worth the societal effort it requires and the wounds it causes.” The case of Maryland death row inmate Vernon Evans,who received a stay jsut prior to his scheduled execution this month, prompted Grossman to examine capital punishment as it relates to victims’ families and whether executions deter future violent…

The most recent edition of the Amicus Journal, a London publication that provides a forum for dialogue on issues concerning capital punishment around the world, contains articles addressing U.S. death penalty concerns. Among the topics covered are clemency, mental retardation, conditions on death row, ineffective assistance of counsel, and lethal injection. The magazine features pieces by a number of U.S. death penalty experts, including an essay on clemency by Austin Sarat and a reprint of a…

Delaware state prosecutors announced that they will not seek the death penalty for Thomas Capano, a former millionaire influential in state politics who was convicted of murdering Anne Marie Fahey. Capano will instead face a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. “Every criminal case has a natural end. We have reached that point in this case. I am satisfied that justice is served by having Thomas Capano spend every day of the rest of his life in prison,” said Deleware…

An article in the Science section of the N.Y. Times reports on research conducted by psychologists at Stanford University on the effects of executions on prison staff. After interviewing nearly 250 prison staff members from three states, the researchers concluded that those who participate in execution teams exhibit high levels of “moral disengagement,” which one of the researchers described as the “ability to selectively engage and disengage our moral standards.” The study found that the…

The Constitution Project’s blue-ribbon Death Penalty Initiative released a new report, “Mandatory Justice: The Death Penalty Revisited,” an updated set of guiding principles for reform of death penalty systems. The group is comprised of current and former FBI officials, state attorneys general, religious leaders, victims of crime, academics, legal experts, and community leaders. They identified specific improvements to address problems such as arbitrariness, race, ineffectiveness of counsel…

A new report issued by Amnesty International found that at least 10% of the first 1,000 people executed in the United States since 1977 were severely mentall ill. The report noted that the National Association of Mental Health estimates that between five and 10% of the 3,400 people on death row around the country are mentally ill. Amnesty said that states are failing to address serious mental health issues before crimes occur. In a review of available psychiatric examinations, medical records…

A new report by the American Bar Association Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project found that Georgia’s death penalty fails to meet 43 ABA standards for improving the fairness and accuracy of the death penalty. The assessment team assembled in Georgia by the ABA was so troubled by its findings that it called for a moratorium on not only executions but also the prosecution of death penalty cases, and urged the state to study problems such as inadequate funding for defense counsel, lack…

Pennsylvania State Representative Michael McGeehan, a tough-on-crime lawmaker from Philadelphia, who earlier had pushed for expedited executions, now regrets that stance. He is sponsoring legislation that would compensate those who have been wrongly convicted. McGeehan’s bill, which would also immediately expunge a wrongly convicted person’s criminal record, was prompted by his outrage at the number of people who have been wrongly convicted and released from prison. McGeehan points to a number…