Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

According to the FBI’s Preliminary Uniform Crime Report for 2002, the murder rate in the South increased by 2.1% while the murder rate in the Northeast decreased by almost 5%. The South accounts for 82% of all executions since 1976; the Northeast accounts for less than 1%. (FBI Preliminary Uniform Crime Report 2002, June 16, 2003). Deterrence.

“Harmful Error,” a new report released by the The Center for Public Integrity, is the end product of an extensive two-year review of prosecutorial misconduct around the nation. The report notes that while many local prosecutors perform their difficult work admirably, inadvertent and intentional misconduct still permeates some district attorneys’ offices. Among other pieces of valuable information contained in the report, “Harmful Error” documents cases in which prosecutorial misconduct played a…

By a vote of 7 – 2, the U.S. Supreme Court has thrown out the death sentence of Maryland death row inmate Kevin Wiggins, ruling that his inexperienced attorneys failed to adequately represent him at trial. Wiggins’ original lawyers made no attempt to inform members of the jury that sent Wiggins to death row that their client was repeatedly raped, beaten and denied food as a child, and that his mother burned his hands on the stove as punishment. In an opinion authored by Justice Sandra Day…