Changes in who is District Attorney have caused a dra­mat­ic decline in death sen­tences in 3 coun­ties that his­tor­i­cal­ly have pro­duced a dis­pro­por­tion­ate num­ber of death sen­tences in the United States, accord­ing to a sto­ry from The Marshall Project. Harris County (Houston), Texas, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, and Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania were all among the 2% of coun­ties that account­ed for 56% of inmates on death row as of 2013, but the res­ig­na­tions or retire­ments of their long-time District Attorneys have been fol­lowed by sig­nif­i­cant drops in the num­ber of new death sentences. 

In Harris County, DA Johnny Holmes secured an aver­age of 12 death sen­tences a year from 1992 to 2000. His imme­di­ate suc­ces­sor obtained about 6 death sen­tences a year, and DAs elect­ed since 2008 have aver­aged about 1 death sen­tence per year. Similarly, Oklahoma County saw about 2.5 death sen­tences a year under long-time DA Robert Macy, but has hand­ed down just 3 sen­tences since 2009.

In both Harris and Oklahoma coun­ties, exon­er­a­tions shook pub­lic con­fi­dence in the jus­tice sys­tem, also con­tribut­ing to the drop in death sen­tences. An FBI review of an Oklahoma police chemist who worked close­ly with Macy uncov­ered delib­er­ate­ly fal­si­fied DNA tests and with­held evi­dence, which defense attor­ney Doug Parr said made peo­ple, more skep­ti­cal of death penal­ty prosecutions.” 

In Philadelphia, DA Lynne Abraham obtained an aver­age of 9.5 death sen­tences per year in the 1990s. According to the arti­cle, the pic­ture began to change in response to bud­get short­falls and crit­i­cisms about racial dis­par­i­ties in death sen­tences. In 2009, Philadelphia elect­ed a new DA, Seth Williams, who, the arti­cle says, promised to improve rela­tions with minori­ties. In the last 5 years, Philadelphia has had only 3 death sen­tences. (Click image to enlarge.)

Citation Guide
Sources

S. Seiver, Why Three Counties That Loved the Death Penalty Have Almost Stopped Pursuing It,” The Marshall Project, August 11, 2015. See Arbitrariness and The 2% Death Penalty.