Entries by Hamza Saeed

DPI​’s​“What to Know” series exam­ines cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment from mul­ti­ple angles, one top­ic at a time. Each install­ment pro­vides essen­tial facts and data on spe­cif­ic aspects of the death penal­ty. This install­ment looks at clemen­cy: what it is, who holds the pow­er, and how often it changes the out­come of a cap­i­tal case. Why it mat­ters: The U.S. Supreme Court has described clemen­cy as the​“fail safe” of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, the last rem­e­dy for a wrongful…

DPI​’s​“What to Know” series exam­ines cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment from mul­ti­ple angles, one top­ic at a time. Each install­ment pro­vides essen­tial facts and data on spe­cif­ic aspects of the death penal­ty. Please vis­it DPI​’s Discrimination in Jury Selection page for a deep­er dive into the issue. Why it mat­ters: Nearly four decades after the U.S. Supreme Court barred race-based juror strikes in Batson v. Kentucky (1986), stud­ies have found that pros­e­cu­tors in North Carolina…

DPI​’s​“What to Know” series exam­ines cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment from mul­ti­ple angles, one top­ic at a time. Each install­ment pro­vides essen­tial facts and data on spe­cif­ic aspects of the death penal­ty. Why it mat­ters: While the U.S. Supreme Court has barred the exe­cu­tion of indi­vid­u­als with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties, no such cat­e­gor­i­cal ban exists for those with severe men­tal ill­ness (SMI). Consequently, peo­ple suf­fer­ing from active psy­chosis, delu­sions, or…