DPIC’S YEAR END REPORT: What the Media Are Saying

DPIC’s 2012 Year End Report received extensive media coverage in the U.S. and internationally. Coverage included pieces by the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, Reuters, New York Times, CNN, and hundreds of other outlets. National broadcast outlets such as NPR, MSNBC, and CBS Radio also ran pieces. Many papers editorialized about the themes highlighted in the Report, including the continuing decline in the use of the death penalty around the country, the geographic clustering of sentences and executions in just a few states, and reasons why people are changing their minds about capital punishment. An editorial in the Virginian-Pilot said state statistics from the report indicated the death penalty had reached a “turning point” and called for ending it: “Multiple studies have shown the death penalty does not reduce crime. The money could be better spent preventing crime and solving unsolved cases.” The Amarillo Globe News in Texas raised concerns about costs; the Anniston Star in Alabama called the death penalty “barbaric;” and the New York Times said it “should be abolished.” An editorial in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram encouraged Texans to reconsider the death penalty, noting, “At a time when much of the nation is rethinking the issue of capital punishment, it’s worth Texans considering whether continuing to be first on the death penalty is something to brag about… Debate about the death penalty - its legal, moral, fiscal and practical considerations - should go on, especially considering the flaws that continue to be exposed in the justice system.”

(“Hope and concern on death penalty, exonerations,” editorial, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, December 2012; “A turning point for death penalty?” editorial, Virginian-Pilot, December 30, 2012). Read DPIC’s 2012 Year End Report. Read more Editorials on the death penalty. See previous Year End Reports.