In-Depth Reports

Executive Summary — Though the Supreme Court has rec­og­nized the impor­tance of mil­i­tary ser­vice in cap­i­tal mit­i­ga­tion, the legal sys­tem has not always ensured this in prac­tice. Many vet­er­ans have been exe­cut­ed with­out a jury ever hear­ing mean­ing­ful infor­ma­tion about their ser­vice. According to best prac­tices, a cap­i­tal defendant’s mil­i­tary ser­vice is an essen­tial part of their sto­ry for a jury to con­sid­er. — While most mil­i­tary veterans never…

In 2005, in Roper v. Simmons, the United States Supreme Court held that the ​“Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments for­bid impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty on offend­ers who were under the age of eigh­teen when their crimes were com­mit­ted.” The deci­sion, after the exe­cu­tion of twen­ty-two peo­ple who com­mit­ted crimes under the age of 18 dur­ing the mod­ern death penal­ty era, marked the end of the juve­nile death penal­ty in the United States.

Elected supreme court jus­tices in Georgia, North Carolina, and Ohio are twice as like­ly to affirm death penal­ty cas­es dur­ing an elec­tion year than in any oth­er year. This effect is sta­tis­ti­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant when con­trol­ling for the num­ber of cas­es each year. Changing pub­lic opin­ion means that zeal­ous sup­port for the death penal­ty is no longer a lit­mus test for elect­ed offi­cials in many death penal­ty juris­dic­tions. Today’s elec­tions fea­ture viable can­di­dates who criticize use…

(Washington, D.C.) As social move­ments pres­sure pol­i­cy­mak­ers to redress injus­tices in the crim­i­nal legal sys­tem and to insti­tute reforms to make the process more fair and equi­table, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) today released,​“Enduring Injustice: the Persistence of Racial Discrimination in the U.S. Death Penalty.” This report pro­vides an in-depth look at the his­tor­i­cal role that race has played in the death penal­ty and details the per­va­sive role racial…

During the past sev­en years, states have begun con­duct­ing exe­cu­tions with drugs and drug com­bi­na­tions that have nev­er been tried before. They have done so behind an expand­ing veil of secre­cy laws that shield the exe­cu­tion process from…