Studies

According to the lat­est FBI Uniform Crime Report released on September 13, the nation­al mur­der rate has dropped from 5.4 (per 100,000 of pop­u­la­tion) in 2008 to 5.0 in 2009, an 8.1% decrease. Each region of the coun­try expe­ri­enced a decrease in its mur­der rate, with the Northeast expe­ri­enc­ing the most sig­nif­i­cant drop of 9%, from 4.2 to 3.8. As in the past, the Northeast con­tin­ued to have the low­est mur­der rate in the coun­try, while the South con­tin­ued to have the highest…

A gov­ern­ment-ordered audit of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation found that the agency false­ly report­ed blood evi­dence in dozens of cas­es, includ­ing three that end­ed in exe­cu­tions. The inquiry, ordered by Attorney General Roy Cooper, found that SBI agents improp­er­ly aid­ed pros­e­cu­tors for over a 16-year peri­od, call­ing into ques­tion con­vic­tions in 230 crim­i­nal cas­es. Duane Deaver, a vet­er­an SBI ana­lyst who per­formed the work in five par­tic­u­lar­ly troubling cases,…

Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canaday issued an Administrative Order cre­at­ing a Florida Innocence Commission ​“to con­duct a com­pre­hen­sive study of the caus­es of wrong­ful con­vic­tion and of mea­sures to pre­vent such con­vic­tions.” The Administrative Order cre­at­ing the com­mis­sion stat­ed the basis for the inves­ti­ga­tion: ​“WHEREAS, the occur­rence of cas­es in which the inno­cent are con­vict­ed and pun­ished con­sti­tutes a grave injus­tice; and…

A recent state analy­sis of the costs of the death penal­ty in Indiana found the aver­age cost to a coun­ty for a tri­al and direct appeal in a cap­i­tal case was over ten times more than a life-with­out-parole case. The aver­age death case cost $449,887, while the aver­age cost of a life-with­out-parole case was only $42,658. The study, pre­pared by the Legislative Services Agency for the General Assembly, found that even while fac­tor­ing the longer incarceration period…

The International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) recent­ly pub­lished a report on the use of the death penal­ty for drug crimes around the world. The report dis­tin­guish­es between coun­tries that have leg­is­la­tion allow­ing a death sen­tence for drug offens­es and those that actu­al­ly apply it in prac­tice. According to the report, 32 juris­dic­tions retain the death penal­ty for drug offens­es (out of the 58 coun­tries that have the death penal­ty for any offense), at least 12 of which…

A recent study pub­lished by the Equal Justice Initiative, a non­prof­it human rights and legal ser­vices orga­ni­za­tion in Alabama, shows that the prac­tice of exclud­ing blacks and oth­er racial minori­ties from juries remains wide­spread and large­ly unchecked, espe­cial­ly in the South. The study, ​“Illegal Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection: A Continuing Legacy,” found that in Alabama, courts have found racial­ly dis­crim­i­na­to­ry jury selec­tion in 25…

The American Bar Association recent­ly pub­lished The State of Criminal Justice 2010, an annu­al report that exam­ines major issues, trends and sig­nif­i­cant changes in America’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. This pub­li­ca­tion serves as a valu­able resource for aca­d­e­mics, stu­dents, and pol­i­cy-makes in the area of crim­i­nal jus­tice, and con­tains 19 chap­ters focus­ing on spe­cif­ic areas of the crim­i­nal jus­tice field. The chap­ter devot­ed to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was written by…