New Study Explores ​“Systemic Deficiencies” in High-Use Death Penalty Counties

As states and coun­ties across the United States are using the death penal­ty with decreas­ing fre­quen­cy, a new report issued by the Fair Punishment Project on August 23 explores the out­lier prac­tices of 16 U.S. coun­ties that are buck­ing the nation­al trend and dis­pro­por­tion­al­ly pur­su­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. These juris­dic­tions, rep­re­sent­ing one-half of one per­cent of all U.S. coun­ties or coun­ty equiv­a­lents, are the only locales in the United States to have imposed five or more death sen­tences since 2010. 

Six of the coun­ties are in Alabama and Florida, the only two states that still per­mit non-unan­i­mous death ver­dicts. Five are locat­ed in high­ly-pop­u­lat­ed Southern California coun­ties that have been the focus of repeat­ed alle­ga­tions of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. The oth­ers include Caddo (LA), Clark (NV), Dallas (TX), Harris (TX) and Maricopa (AZ), all of which have been crit­i­cized for sys­temic inequities in their admin­is­tra­tion of the death penalty. 

Part one of the report exam­ines the ​“sys­temic defi­cien­cies” that con­tribute to the high num­ber of death sen­tences in these coun­ties and pro­vides detailed analy­sis of the cir­cum­stances in 8 of the coun­ties (a sec­ond part of the study, exam­in­ing the remain­ing 8 coun­ties, will be released in September). The report finds that these coun­ties fre­quent­ly share at least three types of struc­tur­al fail­ings: ​“a his­to­ry of overzeal­ous pros­e­cu­tions, inad­e­quate defense lawyer­ing, and a pat­tern of racial bias and exclu­sion.” The study found that these in turn ​“reg­u­lar­ly pro­duce two types of unjust out­comes which dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly impact peo­ple of col­or: the wrong­ful con­vic­tion of inno­cent peo­ple, and the exces­sive pun­ish­ment of per­sons who are young or suf­fer from severe men­tal ill­ness­es, brain dam­age, trau­ma, and intellectual disabilities.” 

For each of the coun­ties, researchers looked at the per­cent­age of cas­es in which pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct was found, not­ing that about one in sev­en cas­es involved a find­ing of mis­con­duct by an appel­late court. One coun­ty, Clark County, Nevada, had a find­ing of mis­con­duct in 47% of cas­es. In explor­ing the issue of inad­e­quate defense, researchers found that lawyers spent less than one day, on aver­age, pre­sent­ing mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence to per­suade penal­ty-phase jurors to impose a sen­tence less than death. Though lit­tle mit­i­ga­tion was pre­sent­ed, near­ly half (44%) of defen­dants sen­tenced to death in the out­lier coun­ties had an intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty, brain dam­age, or severe men­tal ill­ness. The authors write, ​“This is what cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in America looks like today. While the vast major­i­ty of coun­ties have aban­doned the prac­tice alto­geth­er, what remains is the cul­mi­na­tion of one sys­temic defi­cien­cy lay­ered atop another.”

Beginning lat­er this week, DPIC will pub­lish indi­vid­ual sto­ries fea­tur­ing each of the outlier counties.