In-Depth Reports

“Them with­out the cap­i­tal get the pun­ish­ment” is a well-worn phrase among those who have stud­ied the unequal appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty in America. Poor peo­ple fac­ing soci­ety’s ulti­mate penal­ty must rely on pub­lic funds to ensure they are com­pe­tent­ly rep­re­sent­ed, as the Constitution guar­an­tees. Yet, in more and more juris­dic­tions, pub­lic ser­vices of all kinds are being slashed for lack of ade­quate fund­ing. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is one such juris­dic­tion – a dra­mat­ic and graphic…

Twelve years ago, when Jimmy Carter was in the White House, Gary Nelson was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to die for the 1978 rape and mur­der of a 6‑year-old child in Chatham County, Georgia, the kind of high-vis­i­bil­i­ty crime that exerts great pres­sure on police and pros­e­cu­tors to solve…

Nearly 20 years after the Supreme Court held the death penal­ty uncon­sti­tu­tion­al – large­ly because of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion – the death penal­ty in America con­tin­ues to reflect the worst aspects of our judi­cial sys­tem: racism, unequal treat­ment of the poor, a shame­ful­ly inad­e­quate legal defense sys­tem and abuse of dis­cre­tion by ambi­tious pros­e­cu­tors and oth­er politi­cians seeking higher…