Publications & Testimony

Items: 5991 — 6000

Jan 08, 2004

Rate of Death Sentencing at Its Lowest Point Since Reinstatement

While the num­ber of death sen­tences in the United States has fall­en in recent years, the drop in the rate of death sen­tenc­ing has been even more dra­mat­ic. The death sen­tenc­ing rate is the num­ber of death sen­tences divid­ed by the pop­u­la­tion, and is one mea­sure of a coun­try’s sup­port for the death penal­ty. The pro­ject­ed rate of sen­tenc­ing for 2003, 0.048 per 100,000 peo­ple, is the low­est rate since the rein­state­ment of the death penal­ty in 1976. For more infor­ma­tion, read the 2003 DPIC…

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Jan 06, 2004

For the First Time, No Death Sentences in Chicago in 2003

In the year since for­mer Illinois Governor George Ryan’s deci­sion to grant clemen­cy to all those await­ing exe­cu­tion in the state, no one has been sen­tenced to death in Cook County, which includes Chicago. This marks the first time since Illinois rein­stat­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in 1977 that the coun­ty has not had a death sen­tence. Cook County has his­tor­i­cal­ly sent the high­est annu­al num­ber of defen­dants to death row. Although Illinois cur­rent­ly has a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in place,…

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Jan 05, 2004

States Slow to Implement ABA Defense Counsel Guidelines

More than a year after the American Bar Association over­whelm­ing­ly passed guide­lines to raise the qual­i­ty of defense coun­sel in death penal­ty cas­es, no state has adopt­ed the stan­dards and the ABA con­tin­ues to voice con­cern that tri­als are pro­ceed­ing under ​“a sys­tem that is des­per­ate­ly bro­ken.” Although the ABA does not take a posi­tion on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment oth­er than their oppo­si­tion to exe­cut­ing juve­niles and those with men­tal retar­da­tion, the orga­ni­za­tion’s 2002 guide­lines delineate the…

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