DPIC Analysis: The Decline of the Death Penalty in Philadelphia

During his elec­tion cam­paign, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner described the eco­nom­ic waste­ful­ness of city pros­e­cu­tors’ pur­suit of the death penal­ty as ​“light­ing mon­ey on fire.” A DPIC analy­sis of the out­comes of the more than 200 death sen­tences imposed in the city since 1978 (click here to enlarge image) and the last sev­en years of cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion out­comes pro­vides strong sup­port for Krasner’s claim. 

Data track­ing the final dis­po­si­tions of cas­es in which Pennsylvania pros­e­cu­tors had pro­vid­ed notice of intent to seek the death penal­ty showed that between 2011 and 2017, 98.7% of the 225 cas­es in which Philadelphia pros­e­cu­tors had sought the death penal­ty end­ed with a non-cap­i­tal out­come. Similarly, 99.5% of the 201 death sen­tences imposed in the city — most­ly in the 1980s and 1990s — have not result­ed in an exe­cu­tion. Two thirds of the con­vic­tions or death sen­tences have already been reversed in the courts and 115 of the for­mer death-row pris­on­ers have since been resen­tenced either to life sen­tences (101) or a term of years (11) or been exon­er­at­ed (3). The sin­gle exe­cu­tion was of a severe­ly men­tal­ly ill man whom courts ini­tial­ly found incom­pe­tent to waive his rights, but was lat­er per­mit­ted to be executed.

DPIC Executive Director Robert Dunham announced the results of the DPIC analy­sis at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia at a news con­fer­ence con­duct­ed by the death-row exonerees’ orga­ni­za­tion Witness to Innocence. Dunham said that the data showed Philadelphia’s pur­suit of the death penal­ty has been ​“a colos­sal­ly inef­fi­cient” waste of judi­cial resources and ​“a colos­sal waste of money.” 

Death sen­tences imposed in Philadelphia peaked in the first term of District Attorney Ronald Castille’s admin­is­tra­tion in 1986 – 1989, when an aver­age of 11.25 death sen­tences per year were imposed. 99 more death sen­tences were imposed in the decade of the 1990s. By 2001, 135 pris­on­ers were on Philadelphia’s death row, and the 113 African Americans on its death row were more than in any oth­er coun­ty in the United States. Since then, death sen­tenc­ing rates have plum­met­ted, falling to 1.5 per year in 2006 – 2009, the final term of District Attorney Lynn Abraham’s admin­is­tra­tion, and to few­er than one a year this decade, dur­ing the admin­is­tra­tion of Seth Williams. But even as the num­ber of death sen­tences fell, the pro­por­tion of defen­dants of col­or sen­tenced to death in Philadelphia increased. In the past two decades, 82.6% of the defen­dants sen­tenced to death in Philadelphia have been African American. Of the 46 defen­dants sen­tenced to death in Philadelphia since 1997, 44 (95.7%) have been defen­dants of color. 

Krasner’s cam­paign pledge not to use the death penal­ty, Dunham said, was a ​“nat­ur­al con­clu­sion” of the steep decline in death penal­ty usage in the city.

To see the DPIC Philadelphia info­graph­ics from the Witness to Innocence news con­fer­ence, click here.