Policy Issues

Sentencing Alternatives

Alternative sentences, such as life without parole, avoid some of the key problems with capital punishment, including the high cost of the death penalty and the risk of executing an innocent person.

DPIC Podcast: Discussions With DPIC

DPIC Podcast: Discussions With DPIC

Missouri Attorney Discusses Winning Life Sentence in Federal Prison-Killing Case

Overview 

Discussion around the death penalty has increasingly shifted away from a moral debate to a comparison of capital punishment and its viable alternatives. The choice today for prosecutors, jurors, legislators, and the courts is usually between the death penalty and a sentence of life without parole (LWOP). Some victims’ families prefer LWOP to the uncertainty of securing a death sentence and the likelihood of many years of appeals before an execution would occur. Many prosecutors have also concluded that the high costs associated with capital cases are unaffordable, especially with the high rate of reversals. As the availability and use of LWOP has expanded, the number of death sentences has declined dramatically.

States have also looked beyond punishment to alternative ways of reducing violent crime, including community policing, the introduction of crime-fighting technology, and restorative justice efforts. In some jurisdictions, resources not expended in seeking the death penalty could be used to support these initiatives.

At Issue 

Many prosecutors are reluctant to eliminate the death penalty as an option because they see it as a bargaining chip that results in capital defendants pleading guilty in exchange for taking the death penalty off the table. Commentators have noted that the use of the death penalty as a threat is concerning on both ethical and constitutional grounds.

Some opponents of capital punishment also characterize the use of life-without-parole sentences as just another kind of death sentence and note its expanded use even in non-capital cases contributed to the current problem of mass incarceration. According to a 2021 report from The Sentencing Project, the number of people serving sentences of life without parole has increased 66% since 2003; one out of seven incarcerated persons is serving a sentence of either LWOP, life with parole, or a sentence of 50 years or more. Aligning with larger racial disparities in prison sentencing, there is a disproportionate number of Black people serving LWOP sentences, according to 2020 data from the Prison Policy Initiative. The U.S. continues to have the world’s highest prison population per capita, with 629 people per 100,000 in prison, according to Penal Reform International’s 2022 Global Prison Trends. On the other hand, LWOP has been available as an option in every state that has abolished the death penalty in recent years, and some defense lawyers acknowledge that without LWOP many of their clients would be in danger of receiving death sentences.

What DPIC Offers 

Recent opinion polls note the public’s view of using the death penalty vs. alternative sentences, and DPIC has collected the results of those surveys. DPIC also provides information on state legislative efforts to adopt LWOP and examines when and how LWOP results in cases where juries cannot agree on a death sentence.

News & Developments


News

Oct 04, 2024

A Chance at Life, Withdrawn: When Politics Interferes with Plea Deals

American pros­e­cu­tors have immense pow­er and rel­a­tive­ly unchecked dis­cre­tion in cap­i­tal cas­es. But in sev­er­al recent cas­es, death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers reached agree­ments with pros­e­cu­tors that would have saved them from exe­cu­tion, only to learn that anoth­er offi­cial had inter­fered to block the agree­ment. Critics have argued that these deci­sions sow pub­lic dis­trust in the legal process and raise con­cerns that gov­ern­ment offi­cials may be exploit­ing death penal­ty cas­es for political…

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News

Aug 30, 2024

Articles of Interest: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editorial Board Argues that Death Penalty Will Not Bring Justice for Leon Katz

In a new edi­to­r­i­al, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette argues that the death penal­ty is nev­er the jus­tice that is called for” and achieves noth­ing of val­ue except the sat­is­fac­tion of vengeance.” The Post-Gazette describes the death of 6‑week-old Leon Katz in June as an almost unfath­omable” crime and a vio­la­tion of pri­mor­dial inno­cence” — but argues that Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.’s deci­sion to seek the death penal­ty against Nicole Virzi, Leon’s alleged…

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News

Jan 03, 2024

Overwhelming Percentage of Florida’s Hurst Resentencing Hearings End in Life Sentences

According to new research by the Death Penalty Information Center, 82% of Florida death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers who com­plet­ed new sen­tenc­ing pro­ceed­ings under Hurst v. Florida (2016) have been resen­tenced to life in prison with­out parole. Hurst found Florida’s death penal­ty scheme uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, and the Florida Supreme Court sub­se­quent­ly held that new death sen­tences must be unan­i­mous, neces­si­tat­ing new sen­tenc­ing hear­ings. Of the 157 cas­es DPIC pre­vi­ous­ly iden­ti­fied as…

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News

Nov 27, 2023

Florida Judge Imposes Life Sentence for Joshua McClellan, Overriding Non-Unanimous Jury Recommendation for Death

On November 20, Florida Circuit Judge Heidi Davis sen­tenced Joshua McClellan to life in prison after a non-unan­i­mous jury returned a rec­om­men­da­tion of death in September by a 10 – 2 vote. Judge Davis not­ed the mit­i­ga­tion evi­dence pre­sent­ed by Mr. McClellan’s defense, includ­ing men­tal health eval­u­a­tions and tes­ti­mo­ny regard­ing his trau­mat­ic upbring­ing, as an expla­na­tion for her deci­sion. Mr. McClellan was one of the first defen­dants to receive a non-unan­i­mous death rec­om­men­da­tion under a new law…

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News

Aug 21, 2023

Brain Scans of Tennessee Man Who Admits to Killing Eight Convince Prosecutors to Drop Death Penalty

On August 16, 2023, Michael Cummins, who was fac­ing the death penal­ty for the 2019 killings of eight indi­vid­u­als in rur­al Tennessee, pled guilty to all eight counts of first-degree mur­der in exchange for life in prison with­out parole. Sumner County District Attorney Ray Whitley told the press that he had reversed his deci­sion to seek a death sen­tence and agreed to the plea based on new evi­dence regard­ing Mr. Cummins’ men­tal health. That evi­dence includ­ed Mr. Cummins’ brain scans, which showed…

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