The American Bar Association recent­ly pub­lished The State of Criminal Justice 2012, an annu­al report that exam­ines major issues, trends and sig­nif­i­cant changes in America’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. This pub­li­ca­tion serves as a valu­able resource for aca­d­e­mics, stu­dents, and pol­i­cy-mak­ers in the area of crim­i­nal jus­tice, and con­tains 24 chap­ters focus­ing on spe­cif­ic areas of the crim­i­nal jus­tice field. The chap­ter devot­ed to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was writ­ten by Ronald Tabak, spe­cial coun­sel and pro bono coor­di­na­tor at Skadden Arps. Tabak address­es the decline in the use of the death penal­ty, the geo­graph­ic, racial and eco­nom­ic dis­par­i­ties in imple­ment­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, impor­tant Supreme Court deci­sions, and oth­er issues such as the con­tin­u­ing risk of wrong­ful exe­cu­tions. In con­clud­ing, he writes, ​“Ultimately, our soci­ety must decide whether to con­tin­ue with a sys­tem that has been found in study after study, and has been rec­og­nized by a grow­ing num­ber of lead­ing judges, to be far more expen­sive than the actu­al alter­na­tive – in which life with­out parole is the most seri­ous pun­ish­ment. In view of the lack of per­sua­sive evi­dence of soci­etal ben­e­fits from cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, this is one inef­fec­tu­al, waste­ful gov­ern­ment pro­gram whose elim­i­na­tion deserves serious consideration.”

(“The State of Criminal Justice 2012,” American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section, June 2012). The pub­li­ca­tion can be pre-ordered at this link. See Studies on the death penalty.

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