The Indiana Death Penalty Assessment Team, under the aus­pices of the American Bar Association, has called for a halt to exe­cu­tions in the state because of con­cerns about the arbi­trari­ness of the state’s death penal­ty. ​“The seem­ing­ly ran­dom process of charg­ing deci­sions, plea agree­ments, and jury rec­om­men­da­tions is just part of a death penal­ty sys­tem that has apt­ly been called Indiana’s ​‘oth­er lot­tery’,” the group not­ed in its report. The sev­en-mem­ber Indiana pan­el was orga­nized by the ABA Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project, and it found that the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem is in com­pli­ance with only 10 of the 79 pro­to­cols that the ABA adopt­ed in 2001 to bet­ter ensure that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is applied fair­ly.

The assess­ment team, which includ­ed for­mer Indiana Governor Joe Kernan and oth­er experts rep­re­sent­ing a vari­ety of per­spec­tives on the issue, con­clud­ed that Indiana’s death penal­ty sys­tem is bro­ken. Among the group’s main con­cerns were racial dis­par­i­ties in the state’s cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing sys­tem, the risks to inno­cent lives, and the lack of an inde­pen­dent author­i­ty to appoint defense attor­neys in cap­i­tal cas­es. To address these and oth­er find­ings, the team issued 12 rec­om­men­da­tions, such as ban­ning the exe­cu­tion of those with men­tal ill­ness, requir­ing law enforce­ment to record all inter­ro­ga­tions, adopt­ing tougher qual­i­fi­ca­tions and mon­i­tor­ing pro­ce­dures for attor­neys in cap­i­tal cas­es, and ensur­ing that those fac­ing exe­cu­tion have ade­quate oppor­tu­ni­ties to prove their inno­cence.

​“We want to make sure that our sys­tem is fair and that there are guide­lines in terms of how sen­tences are put out and that the death penal­ty is reserved for those that we would con­sid­er the worst of the worst,” Kernan said. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has said he would review the report.
(Associated Press, February 24, 2007).

Indiana is one of 16 states where ABA-appoint­ed assess­ment teams have been estab­lished and asked to review cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment pro­ce­dures to see whether they com­ply with min­i­mum stan­dards of fair­ness and due process. Read the full Indiana Report. Read the Executive Summary. Read more about the mem­bers of the Indiana Death Penalty Assessment Team. See also Studies and Representation.

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