Entries by Melanie Nolan

In her forthcoming article in the U.C. Irvine Law Review, Professor Alexandra L. Klein argues that the effect of executions on the people who carry them out has been largely overlooked in both legal scholarship and constitutional doctrine. If the state chooses to execute someone, she writes, someone must perform the killing, and the psychological consequences deserve a central place in conversations about cruelty under the Eighth Amendment. The author argues that evidence of harm to execution…

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: More than 600 capital convictions or death sentences have been overturned or led to exonerations because of prosecutorial misconduct, and researchers say the true scope of the problem is likely far greater. DPI has identified more than 600 instances in which a capital conviction or death…