NEW VOICES: Justice Stevens Harshly Critical of the Death Penalty

Speaking at the American Bar Association’s Thurgood Marshall Awards Dinner in Illinois, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said that the death penal­ty has ​“seri­ous flaws.” He recalled the late Justice Marshall in remark­ing how much the coun­try has learned about the risks in death cas­es: ​“Since his retire­ment, with the ben­e­fit of DNA evi­dence, we have learned that a sub­stan­tial num­ber of death sen­tences have been imposed erro­neous­ly,” Stevens said dur­ing the cer­e­mo­ny. He added that Supreme Court cas­es have revealed that ​“a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of defen­dants in cap­i­tal cas­es have not been pro­vid­ed with ful­ly com­pe­tent legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion at tri­al.” He also ques­tioned the fair­ness of the jury selec­tion process in cap­i­tal cas­es, which elim­i­nates poten­tial jurors who are opposed to the death penal­ty. (Associated Press, August 7, 2005). Read Justice Stevens’ Remarks. See Innocence and New Voices.