Death Sentences Drop in Three High-Use Counties As Prosecutors Change

Changes in who is District Attorney have caused a dra­mat­ic decline in death sen­tences in 3 coun­ties that his­tor­i­cal­ly have pro­duced a dis­pro­por­tion­ate num­ber of death sen­tences in the United States, accord­ing to a sto­ry from The Marshall Project. Harris County (Houston), Texas, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, and Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania were all among the 2% of coun­ties that account­ed for 56% of inmates on death row as of 2013, but the res­ig­na­tions or retire­ments of their long-time District Attorneys have been fol­lowed by sig­nif­i­cant drops in the num­ber of new death sentences. 

In Harris County, DA Johnny Holmes secured an aver­age of 12 death sen­tences a year from 1992 to 2000. His imme­di­ate suc­ces­sor obtained about 6 death sen­tences a year, and DAs elect­ed since 2008 have aver­aged about 1 death sen­tence per year. Similarly, Oklahoma County saw about 2.5 death sen­tences a year under long-time DA Robert Macy, but has hand­ed down just 3 sen­tences since 2009.

In both Harris and Oklahoma coun­ties, exon­er­a­tions shook pub­lic con­fi­dence in the jus­tice sys­tem, also con­tribut­ing to the drop in death sen­tences. An FBI review of an Oklahoma police chemist who worked close­ly with Macy uncov­ered delib­er­ate­ly fal­si­fied DNA tests and with­held evi­dence, which defense attor­ney Doug Parr said made peo­ple, ​“more skep­ti­cal of death penalty prosecutions.” 

In Philadelphia, DA Lynne Abraham obtained an aver­age of 9.5 death sen­tences per year in the 1990s. According to the arti­cle, the pic­ture began to change in response to bud­get short­falls and crit­i­cisms about racial dis­par­i­ties in death sen­tences. In 2009, Philadelphia elect­ed a new DA, Seth Williams, who, the arti­cle says, promised to improve rela­tions with minori­ties. In the last 5 years, Philadelphia has had only 3 death sen­tences. (Click image to enlarge.)