Studies

The Pennsylvania Senate recently passed a resolution that will result in a study of the state’s death penalty and look at issues of fairness, equality and costs of a punishment that is rarely carried out in the state. The resolution was sponsored by Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, a Republican, who said, “Questions are frequently raised regarding the costs, deterrent effect and appropriateness of capital punishment. I believe that we need to answer these questions.” Since Pennsylvania reinstated the…

(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…

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…

On December 20, the Bureau of Justice Statistics released its annual set of statistical tables on the death penalty in the United States, covering information for 2010. Hightlights from the report include: ‑The average time spent on death row for those executed in 2010 was longer than for any previous year since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The average time between sentencing and execution for those executed in 2010 was 14.8 years. ‑During 2010, 119 inmates were removed from…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…