Studies

A recent study by David McCord, Professor of Law at Drake University Law School, titled What’s Messing with Texas Death Sentences?, found five sig­nif­i­cant caus­es for the recent decline in death sen­tences in Texas. McCord sought to explain a 65% drop in Texas death sen­tences from their peak five-year peri­od of 1992 – 1996 (when there was an annu­al aver­age of 40 death sen­tences) to the recent five-year peri­od of 2005 – 2009 (when only 14 death sen­tences were hand­ed down on aver­age each year). The study point­ed to numer­ous devel­op­ments in Texas that…

The Texas Forensic Science Commission recent­ly closed its inquiry into the case of Cameron Todd Willingham (pic­tured), who was exe­cut­ed in Texas in 2004. The Commission was told by the Texas Attorney General that it did not have juris­dic­tion to rule on the Willingham case. Hence, in its final report on October 28 on the mat­ter, it declined to issue any find­ing regard­ing alle­ga­tions of neg­li­gence or mis­con­duct by the City of Corsicana or the Texas State Fire Marshal in the Willingham mat­ter. The Commission, how­ev­er, acknowl­edged that out­dat­ed science…

A recent review of death penal­ty cas­es in Pennsylvania con­duct­ed by the Philadelphia Inquirer (see ear­li­er DPIC post) has revealed a pat­tern of inef­fec­tive assis­tance of coun­sel lead­ing to exten­sive delays and rever­sals of death sen­tences. When the cas­es are lit­i­gat­ed a sec­ond time, now with more com­pe­tent rep­re­sen­ta­tion, they fre­quent­ly do not result in a death sen­tence. Prosecutors have called the sys­tem a great dis­ser­vice to vic­tims’ fam­i­lies. Edward McCann, the first assis­tant dis­trict attor­ney in Philadelphia, said, ​“The length of time is uncon­scionable. To have to make phone…

A recent report from the Pennsylvania Advisory Committee on Wrongful Convictions called for seri­ous reforms in the state’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. The com­mit­tee, which was instruct­ed to iden­ti­fy the most com­mon caus­es of wrong­ful con­vic­tions (some of which were cap­i­tal cas­es) and any cur­rent laws and pro­ce­dures impli­cat­ed in each type of cau­sa­tion, found that, ​“under [the cur­rent] insti­tu­tion­al struc­ture, defen­dants have been pun­ished for crimes they did not com­mit. Compounding these con­cerns, bio­log­i­cal evi­dence is avail­able in only a small num­ber of cas­es involv­ing vio­lent crimes. There is every…

A new study by Professor Robert J. Smith of the DePaul University College of Law exam­ines the impo­si­tion of death sen­tences by coun­ties in the U.S. The author, who is also part of The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard, found that only a rel­a­tive­ly few coun­ties impose a large per­cent­age of death sen­tences, while a large major­i­ty of juris­dic­tions have aban­doned the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Prof. Smith’s study found that death sen­tences that result­ed in exe­cu­tions between 2004 – 2009 were hand­ed down in less than…

Recent polls con­duct­ed by Gallup and CNN indi­cate Americans’ sup­port for the death penal­ty is con­tin­u­ing to decline. According to Gallup’s 2011 poll, the per­cent­age of Americans approv­ing the death penal­ty as a pun­ish­ment for mur­der dropped to its low­est lev­el in 39 years. Only 61% sup­port­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the­o­ry, down from 64% last year and from 80% sup­port in 1994. This is the low­est lev­el of sup­port since 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court rul­ing in Furman v. Georgia void­ed death penal­ty statutes across the coun­try. Opposition to…

The Death Penalty Information Center is pleased to offer a new page illus­trat­ing the geog­ra­phy of the death penal­ty–Executions by County. This page shows the top 15 coun­ties in the U.S. mea­sured by the num­ber of exe­cu­tions since 1976 that emanat­ed from these coun­ties. As revealed on the map, a small num­ber of coun­ties are respon­si­ble for a dis­pro­por­tion­ate num­ber of exe­cu­tions. (Click on the map at left to enlarge.) The infor­ma­tion con­trasts with the coun­ties that have had the most mur­ders, which is also provided.

The Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, Maureen O’Connor, has ini­ti­at­ed a review of the state’s death penal­ty to deter­mine if changes should be made and ask­ing, ​“Is the sys­tem we have the best we can do?” To con­duct the study, Justice O’Connor called for a 20-per­son com­mit­tee of judges, pros­e­cut­ing attor­neys, crim­i­nal defense lawyers, law­mak­ers and aca­d­e­m­ic experts con­vened by the state’s Supreme Court and the Ohio State Bar Association. She stat­ed the review ​“will make sure the cur­rent sys­tem is admin­is­tered fair­ly, effi­cient­ly, and in the most…