Studies

A new report on the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem pub­lished by the ACLU of Northern California cat­a­logs numer­ous intractable prob­lems and wan­ing pub­lic sup­port which may lead to the end of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state. According to the report, ​“California’s Death Penalty is Dead: Anatomy of a Failure,” the death penal­ty in California is being slow­ly aban­doned as pros­e­cu­tors, leg­is­la­tors and tax­pay­ers are increas­ing­ly turn­ing to life in prison with­out parole as an alter­na­tive pun­ish­ment. Only three death sen­tences were imposed in the state between January — June 2011,…

A new report from the Equal Justice Initiative in Alabama expos­es the prac­tice of state judges impos­ing death sen­tences by over­rid­ing a jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion for life. EJI’s study found that judges in the state have over­rid­den jury rec­om­men­da­tions 107 times since 1976. In 92% of the over­rides, judges over­ruled life ver­dicts to impose a death sen­tence. More than 20% of the defen­dants on Alabama’s death row were sen­tenced through judge over­rides. These sen­tences con­tribute to the high per capi­ta death sen­tenc­ing and exe­cu­tion rates in Alabama com­pared to the rest…

The lat­est edi­tion of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund​’s ​“Death Row USA” shows that the num­ber of peo­ple on death row in the United States is con­tin­u­ing to slow­ly decline, falling to 3,242 as of October 1, 2010. In 2000, there were 3,682 inmates on death row. Nationally, the racial com­po­si­tion of those on death row is 44% white, 42% black, and 12% Latino/​Latina. California con­tin­ues to have the largest death row pop­u­la­tion (714), fol­lowed by Florida (394) and Texas (322). Pennsylvania (220) and Alabama (204) com­plete the list of…

The Death Penalty Information Center has released a new report, ​“Struck by Lightning: The Continuing Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty Thirty-Five Years After Its Reinstatement in 1976.” The report shows that despite the changes to sen­tenc­ing schemes approved by the U.S. Supreme Court on July 2, 1976, race, geog­ra­phy, mon­ey and oth­er fac­tors con­tin­ue to make the imple­men­ta­tion of the death penal­ty arbi­trary and unfair. A major­i­ty of the nine Justices who served on the Supreme Court in 1976 when the death penal­ty was approved even­tu­al­ly con­clud­ed the exper­i­ment had…

A new study of California​’s death penal­ty found that tax­pay­ers have spent more than $4 bil­lion on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment since it was rein­stat­ed in 1978, or $308 mil­lion for each of the 13 exe­cu­tions car­ried out since then. The study, con­duct­ed by U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Arthur L. Alarcon and Loyola Law School Professor Paula M. Mitchell esti­mat­ed that cap­i­tal tri­als, enhanced secu­ri­ty on death row and legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion for cap­i­tal defen­dants add $184 mil­lion to California’s bud­get annu­al­ly. California has the largest death row in the coun­try and…

On June 13, 2011, law pro­fes­sor and not­ed researcher David Baldus died in Iowa City, IA. Professor Baldus had been a pro­fes­sor at the University of Iowa since 1969 and taught crim­i­nal law, anti-dis­crim­i­na­tion law, and cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and fed­er­al crim­i­nal law. He was nation­al­ly rec­og­nized for his research on the death penal­ty. Professor Baldus con­duct­ed many stud­ies regard­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the United States. One well-known study, con­duct­ed in 1983, exam­ined the pres­ence of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing in Georgia. Baldus’s research found that the…

The American Bar Association recent­ly pub­lished The State of Criminal Justice 2011, an annu­al report that exam­ines major issues, trends and sig­nif­i­cant changes in America’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. The pub­li­ca­tion serves as a valu­able resource for aca­d­e­mics, stu­dents, and pol­i­cy-makes. The chap­ter devot­ed to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was writ­ten by Ronald Tabak, spe­cial coun­sel and pro bono coor­di­na­tor at the law firm of Skadden Arps in New York. Tabak explores leg­isla­tive changes in the states, the declin­ing use of the death penal­ty, impor­tant Supreme Court deci­sions, and oth­er issues such as…

On May 28, the Nevada Senate passed a bill autho­riz­ing an audit of the cost of the state’s death penal­ty. By a vote of 11 – 10, the Senate called for the leg­isla­tive audi­tor to com­pare the costs of pros­e­cu­tion and appeals in cap­i­tal cas­es to non-death penal­ty cas­es, exam­in­ing the cost of defense lawyers, juries, psy­chi­atric eval­u­a­tions, appel­late and post-con­vic­tion pro­ceed­ings. The audi­tor would also exam­ine the cost of an exe­cu­tion, includ­ing the costs of facil­i­ties and staff. The report would be due Jan. 31, 2013. Nevada has not had an…

A recent Philadelphia Inquirer study revealed that the death penal­ty is almost nev­er hand­ed down for homi­cides in Pennsylvania, and that exe­cu­tions are even more unlike­ly. From a com­pi­la­tion of 1,975 homi­cide cas­es dat­ing from 2007 to Feb. 3, 2011 pro­vid­ed by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, only 8 result­ed in a death sen­tence. Almost all cas­es end­ed with a sen­tence of life with­out parole, with guilty pleas, acquit­tals or dis­missal of charges. Of the almost 2,000 cas­es from 56 coun­ties, 639 were judged to be 1^st degree murders,…