A diverse coali­tion of the nation’s lead­ing crim­i­nal jus­tice reform orga­ni­za­tions recent­ly released Smart on Crime: Recommendations for the Administration and Congress. This analy­sis of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem and the accom­pa­ny­ing set of rec­om­men­da­tions for change is one of the most com­pre­hen­sive reports ever pub­lished address­ing the prob­lems in this field. The Coalition of over 40 orga­ni­za­tions is coor­di­nat­ed by the Constitution Project and includes such groups as the American Bar Association, the Innocence Project, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Heritage Foundation, and Prison Fellowship, though not every orga­ni­za­tion sup­port­ed every chap­ter of the report. With respect to the death penal­ty, the report made a series of rec­om­men­da­tions: See below:

Recommendation: Reform habeas cor­pus to address dam­age caused by AEDPA 
[Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996]. Congress should
amend the fed­er­al habeas statute to address the dam­age AEDPA has wrought in fed­er­al habeas
cor­pus over the past fif­teen years. Congress should revise the statute of lim­i­ta­tions, exhaus­tion
require­ments, and pro­ce­dur­al default stan­dards, as well as elim­i­nate fed­er­al court def­er­ence to
state court inter­pre­ta­tions of con­sti­tu­tion­al and fed­er­al law and restric­tions on suc­ces­sive habeas
petitions.

Recommendation: Creating safe­guards against racial­ly biased cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions. Congress
should seek to address the dis­pro­por­tion­ate appli­ca­tion of the fed­er­al death penal­ty to defen­dants
of col­or. Congress should com­mis­sion an inde­pen­dent study of the fed­er­al death penal­ty sys­tem to
exam­ine racial dis­par­i­ties, prej­u­di­cial errors, ade­qua­cy of coun­sel, and oth­er inequities in cap­i­tal
pros­e­cu­tions, and make rec­om­men­da­tions for leg­isla­tive reform. The Department of Justice should
also revise its poli­cies and reg­u­la­tions to ensure greater con­sis­ten­cy and fair­ness in the appli­ca­tion
of the fed­er­al death penalty.

Recommendation: Protecting the men­tal­ly ill from exe­cu­tion. Congress should exempt peo­ple with
severe men­tal ill­ness and/​or devel­op­men­tal dis­abil­i­ties from cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion. Even with­out
leg­isla­tive action, the Department of Justice should adopt a pol­i­cy that exempts peo­ple with severe
men­tal ill­ness and/​or devel­op­men­tal dis­abil­i­ties from capital prosecutions.

Recommendation: Provide ade­quate coun­sel in cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions. Congress should increase
fed­er­al defend­er inde­pen­dence from the fed­er­al judi­cia­ry. Giving the judi­cia­ry con­trol over defense
func­tions cre­ates a con­flict of inter­est. Federal defend­ers would be able to oper­ate more
effec­tive­ly and effi­cient­ly if the judi­cia­ry no longer appoint­ed coun­sel or approved bud­gets for
experts and oth­er resources at any stage of a fed­er­al death penal­ty case, includ­ing post-con­vic­tion
review.

(Smart on Crime: Recommendations for the Administration and Congress, The Constitution Project, Feb. 10, 2011). See Studies.
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