Fair Punishment Project Issues Report on Deadliest Prosecutors

A new report by Harvard Law School’s Fair Punishment Project has found that a small num­ber of overzeal­ous pros­e­cu­tors with high rates of mis­con­duct have a huge­ly dis­pro­por­tion­ate impact on the death penal­ty in the United States. The report, America’s Top Five Deadliest Prosecutors: How Overzealous Personalities Drive the Death Penalty, shows that, by them­selves, these pros­e­cu­tors are respon­si­ble for more than 440 death sen­tences, the equiv­a­lent of 15% of the entire U.S. death row population today. 

Exploring what it calls ​“the prob­lem of per­son­al­i­ty-dri­ven cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing,” the report details the effects of Joe Freeman Britt of Robeson County, North Carolina; Robert Macy of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma; Donald Myers of the 11^th Judicial District of South Carolina; Lynne Abraham of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Johnny Holmes of Harris County, Texas. Britt, Macy, and Myers per­son­al­ly pros­e­cut­ed a com­bined 131 cas­es that result­ed in death sen­tences, while Abraham and Holmes over­saw offices that the report says imposed 108 and 201 death sen­tences, respec­tive­ly. They also dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly sent inno­cent peo­ple to death row, pros­e­cut­ing 1 out of 20 of the nation’s death-row exonerees. 

The report found sim­i­lar pat­terns involv­ing these pros­e­cu­tors, includ­ing high rates of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, state­ments and actions that revealed a win-at-all-costs men­tal­i­ty, and a sharp decrease in death sen­tences once they and their pro­teges left office. Britt, Macy, and Myers were found to have com­mit­ted mis­con­duct in one-third to 46% of the death penal­ty cas­es they pros­e­cut­ed. Prosecutors in Abraham’s and Holmes’ offices were found to have engaged in mis­con­duct, includ­ing racial­ly-biased jury selec­tion and fail­ures to dis­close favorable evidence. 

Of the five pros­e­cu­tors pro­filed in the report, only Myers—who is not seek­ing re-elec­tion — is still in office. After the oth­er four pros­e­cu­tors left office, the num­ber of death sen­tences has declined sig­nif­i­cant­ly. Robeson County has imposed two death sen­tences in the last 10 years, Oklahoma County and Philadelphia County have each imposed three in six years, and Harris County dropped from an aver­age of 12 death sen­tences a year dur­ing Holmes’ last decade as pros­e­cu­tor to one a year since 2008.

The report also high­lights eight oth­er pros­e­cu­tors who have col­lec­tive­ly obtained more than 100 death sen­tences. The report says that the ​“over-aggres­sive and reck­less” fer­vor with which the fea­tured pros­e­cu­tors pur­sue death sen­tences is ​“evi­dence that the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty is — and always has been — less about the cir­cum­stances of the the offense or the char­ac­ter­is­tics of the per­son who com­mit­ted the crime, and more a func­tion of the per­son­al­i­ty and predilec­tions of the local pros­e­cu­tors entrust­ed with the pow­er to seek the ulti­mate pun­ish­ment.” It con­cludes, “[t]his overzeal­ous, per­son­al­i­ty-dri­ven, win-at-all-costs pur­suit of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment seri­ous­ly under­mines the legit­i­ma­cy of the death penalty today.”