Studies

The Ohio Attorney General​’s Office recent­ly released its annu­al Capital Crimes Report, ana­lyz­ing the state’s death penal­ty cas­es and death row pop­u­la­tion. In 2009, there was only one death sen­tence hand­ed down in Ohio, mir­ror­ing a nation­wide trend of declin­ing death sen­tences. This was the fewest death sen­tences in a year since Ohio rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty. The report indi­cat­ed that over half of the cur­rent death row pop­u­la­tion of 160 inmates are…

A new report released by the ACLU of Northern California reveals that only three coun­ties – Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside – account­ed for 83% of the state’s death sen­tences in 2009. Los Angeles County, with 13 death sen­tences, was the lead­ing death penal­ty coun­ty in the entire coun­try last year. According to the report, California, with the largest death row in the coun­try, spends $137 mil­lion annu­al­ly on the death penal­ty, while the state is cut­ting back on many vital…

Amnesty International recent­ly released its annu­al glob­al report on the death penal­ty, cov­er­ing exe­cu­tions and death sen­tences world­wide in 2009. The report states that more than 700 peo­ple were exe­cut­ed in 18 coun­tries in 2009, and at least 2,000 peo­ple were sen­tenced to death. One hun­dred and sev­en­ty-nine (179) coun­tries had no exe­cu­tions last year. Countries with the high­est num­ber of exe­cu­tions were Iran (with at least 388 exe­cu­tions),…

Twenty-sev­en peo­ple were exon­er­at­ed and released from prison this year, includ­ing some who had been on death row, accord­ing to a new report from The Innocence Project, a nation­al lit­i­ga­tion and pub­lic pol­i­cy orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to exon­er­at­ing wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed peo­ple. The 27 exonerees served a com­bined 421 years in prison for crimes they did not com­mit. The exon­er­a­tions occurred through the work of the Innocence Project Network, which con­sists of 54…

On December 4, the New Hampshire Commission to Study the Death Penalty held a hear­ing in Concord to exam­ine the cost of the death penaty in the state. The twen­ty-two mem­ber Commission, led by retired Judge Walter Murphy, has been charged with con­sid­er­ing sev­er­al issues, includ­ing whether the death penal­ty is a deter­rent, if it is arbi­trar­i­ly applied, and if it cov­ers the appro­pri­ate crimes. The Commission is con­sid­er­ing alter­na­tives to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and…

On November 23, Kentucky Public Advocate Ed Monahan and Louisville Metro Chief Public Defender Dan Goyette called on the gov­er­nor and the state’s Attorney General to stay all exe­cu­tions until an assess­ment team formed by the American Bar Association can objec­tive­ly review the state’s death penal­ty. Monahan and Goyette wrote let­ters ask­ing Attorney General Jack Conway not to request any fur­ther exe­cu­tion war­rants and asking…