Entries by Greta Maras

News 

Aug 04, 2025

Lethal Elections: Pro-Death Penalty Candidates Falter in Major State Races

Today’s elec­tions fea­ture viable can­di­dates who crit­i­cize use of the death penal­ty and pledge reforms or even non-use in death penal­ty states, reflect­ing the con­tin­ued decline in pub­lic sup­port for the death penal­ty. Following up on its 2024 Report on elec­tions and the death penal­ty, DPI can­vassed a wide range of resources, drilling down on guber­na­to­r­i­al, court, and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al elec­tions in the 2024 – 2025 elec­tion cycle to assess results in races that…

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News 

Jul 02, 2025

Facts About the Death Penalty — Does the Death Penalty Make Communities Safer?

Deterrence is one of the most com­mon­ly expressed rea­sons for use of the death penal­ty, both as a con­sti­tu­tion­al jus­ti­fi­ca­tion and as a pub­lic pol­i­cy ratio­nale. Elected offi­cials have recent­ly called the death penal­ty an​“essen­tial” deter­rent to crime. The argu­ment goes that if some­one knows they could face the death penal­ty, they will not com­mit the crime. Following that rea­son­ing would sug­gest that states with the death penal­ty are safer than states without…

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