Studies

(On January 10, DPIC post­ed an item about an edi­to­r­i­al in the New York Times crit­i­ciz­ing the arbi­trari­ness of the death penal­ty. That edi­to­r­i­al relied heav­i­ly on the research of Prof. John Donohue (pic­tured) of Stanford Law School and his study of the Connecticut death penal­ty. This post looks fur­ther at the under­ly­ing study.) Prof. Donohue’s research found that out of thou­sands of mur­ders com­mit­ted in Connecticut between 1973 and 2007, only one result­ed in an exe­cu­tion of the defen­dant. He con­clud­ed that ​“the state’s record of han­dling death-eli­gi­ble cases…

The lat­est edi­tion of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund​’s ​“Death Row USA” showed a decrease of 29 inmates in the death row pop­u­la­tion between January 1 and April 1, 2011. The total pop­u­la­tion of state and fed­er­al death rows is sig­nif­i­cant­ly small­er now (3,222 inmates) than in 2000 (3,682 inmates). The size of death row is affect­ed by the num­ber of death sen­tences, the num­ber of exe­cu­tions, and the num­ber of sen­tence rever­sals. Nationally, the racial com­po­si­tion of those on death row is 44% white, 42% black, and 12% Latino/​Latina.…

(Bureau of Justice Statistics, Capital Punishment, 2010 — Statistical Tables, December 20, 2011). For infor­ma­tion on the death penal­ty in 2011, see DPIC’s Year End Report. See Death Row, Sentencing and Studies.

Two for­mer Supreme Court Justices in Kentucky and the President of the American Bar Association called for a sus­pen­sion of exe­cu­tions in the state until its death penal­ty sys­tem is reformed. Writing in the Louisville Courier-Journal, the Justices stat­ed, ​“The list of prob­lem­at­ic cas­es is stag­ger­ing, and review of the sys­tem is deeply trou­bling. Fairness, impar­tial­i­ty and effec­tive­ness of coun­sel have been under­mined by seri­ous flaws that reveal sys­temic prob­lems in admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty in the com­mon­wealth.” Citing find­ings from a recent study con­duct­ed by the ABA, for­mer…

On December 15, the Death Penalty Information Center released its lat­est report, ​“The Death Penalty in 2011: Year End Report,” on sta­tis­tics and trends in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the past year. The report not­ed that new death sen­tences dropped to 78 in 2011, mark­ing the first time since cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was rein­stat­ed in 1976 that the coun­try has pro­duced less than 100 death sen­tences in a year. It rep­re­sents a 75% decline since 1996, when there were 315 new death sen­tences. California, which has the coun­try’s largest death row, saw…

On December 7, the American Bar Association released a report assess­ing Kentucky​’s sys­tem of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and call­ing for a halt to exe­cu­tions in the state. The report was pre­pared by the Kentucky Assessment Team on the Death Penalty, which includ­ed law pro­fes­sors, for­mer state supreme court jus­tices, and prac­tic­ing attor­neys. The two-year study rec­om­mend­ed that the state tem­porar­i­ly sus­pend exe­cu­tions until seri­ous issues of fair­ness and accu­ra­cy are addressed. The review report­ed that courts have found an error rate of more than 60 per­cent in the tri­als of those…

According to a recent study by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Virginia exe­cutes the high­est pro­por­tion of peo­ple sen­tenced to death of any state in the coun­try. Of the 149 death sen­tences hand­ed down through 2010, 108 have result­ed in an exe­cu­tion, a rate of about 72 per­cent. Virginia is sec­ond to Texas in the total num­ber of exe­cu­tions car­ried out since 1976, but Texas has exe­cut­ed less than half of those sen­tenced to death. In many states, less than 1 in 10 death sen­tences have result­ed in an exe­cu­tion. Inmates in…

Leaders from North Carolina’s civ­il rights groups, such as the NAACP, and from the defense bar have re-affirmed the need for the state’s Racial Justice Act, which was passed in 2009. The Act allows death row inmates to chal­lenge their death sen­tences using data from sta­tis­ti­cal stud­ies of racial bias with­in the state. The North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys is attempt­ing to have the law repealed because they say it threat­ens the entire death penal­ty sys­tem. Tye Hunter from the Center for Death Penalty Litigation said that some of…

The Death Penalty Information Center is pleased to announce that our List of Those Exonerated from Death Row (1973-Present) is now avail­able in a search­able, data­base for­mat through our new Innocence Database. This resource allows users to search through the list of those freed from death row after their con­vic­tions were dis­missed by name, year of exon­er­a­tion, state from which they were released, the inmate’s race, and whether DNA evi­dence fac­tored into their release. Lists of cas­es can also be sort­ed by each cat­e­go­ry. The data­base includes cas­es such as…