DPIC In-Depth Reports

DPIC In-Depth Reports

Jul 01, 1997

This report tells the sto­ries of peo­ple like Rolando Cruz, released after 10 years on Illinois’s death row, despite the fact that anoth­er man had con­fessed to the crime short­ly after his con­vic­tion; and Ricardo Aldape Guerra, who returned to Mexico after 15 years on Texas’s death row because of a pros­e­cu­tion that a fed­er­al judge called outrageous…

DPIC In-Depth Reports

Oct 18, 1996

Not only are can­di­dates for leg­isla­tive office cam­paign­ing loud­ly on the death penal­ty, even judges and local pros­e­cu­tors are cit­ing the num­bers of peo­ple they have sent to death row in their cam­paigns for office. Many of those seiz­ing the anti-crime man­tle not only advo­cate cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, but also seek to out-do each oth­er in expand­ing the…

DPIC In-Depth Reports

Jun 01, 1996

One day the Court will out­law the death penal­ty. Brennan, Jr., retired Supreme Court Justice, 1996 [1] ​“From this day for­ward, I no longer shall tin­ker with the machin­ery of death. For more than 20 years I have endeav­ored – indeed, I have strug­gled – along with a major­i­ty of this Court, to devel­op pro­ce­dur­al and sub­stan­tive rules that would lend…

DPIC In-Depth Reports

Oct 01, 1995

As exe­cu­tions reach record num­bers in the U.S., the sys­tem of rep­re­sen­ta­tion for those fac­ing the death penal­ty is in a state of cri­sis. Too many states encour­age this mal­prac­tice by offer­ing total­ly inad­e­quate pay and resources for death penal­ty defense. Yet Congress is about to dras­ti­cal­ly cur­tail the oppor­tu­ni­ties for death row inmates to…

DPIC In-Depth Reports

Feb 01, 1995

A new nation­al sur­vey of police chiefs from around the coun­try dis­cred­its the repeat­ed asser­tion that the death penal­ty is an impor­tant law enforce­ment tool. Police chiefs rank the death penal­ty last as a way of reduc­ing vio­lent crime, plac­ing it behind curb­ing drug abuse, more police offi­cers on the streets, low­er­ing the tech­ni­cal bar­ri­ers to…