Studies
Items: 311 — 320
Apr 16, 2010
STUDIES: Victims’ Social Status Plays Influential Role in Death Cases
Scott Phillips, a sociology and criminology professor at the University of Denver, published a study last month in the Law & Society Review focusing on the imposition of death sentences in relation to the victim’s social status. Phillips studied capital cases in Harris County (Houston), Texas, between 1992 and 1999 and found that the social status of the victim in the underlying murder had a significant influence on whether the death penalty would be sought and imposed on the defendant. In…
Read MoreApr 15, 2010
STUDIES: Ohio Releases Annual Capital Crimes Report
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 African-American (51%), while Caucasians…
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Apr 14, 2010
NEW RESOURCES: Death Row USA, Fall 2009
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund recently released its Fall 2009 edition of Death Row USA, a report detailing death row populations across the United States. According to the report, California, Florida and Texas continue to lead the nation in the number of death row inmates, with California (694) having a death row population almost twice as large as either Florida (395) or Texas (339). In addition, while Florida’s and Texas’ death row populations have declined in the last decade…
Read MoreApr 06, 2010
STUDIES: Death Sentences in California Show Arbitrariness of the System
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 services. The report…
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Mar 31, 2010
INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Only 18 Countries Carried Out Executions in 2009
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), Iraq (with at least 120 executions), Saudi Arabia (with…
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Mar 08, 2010
STUDIES: High Percentage of Death Sentences in North Carolina Later Deemed Excessive
Most of those originally condemned to death in North Carolina eventually received lesser sentences when their cases were concluded, according to Professor Frank Baumgartner, a researcher at the University of North Carolina. Many of those sentenced to death received a new trial because their first trial was seriously flawed. At their subsequent trials, the vast majority were sentenced to a punishment less than death, typically a life sentence. Only about 20% of the cases that were finally…
Read MoreDec 31, 2009
STUDIES: Researchers Find “No Empirical Support” for Deterrence Theory
Researchers from the University of Texas at Dallas recently published a study on whether executions deter homicides using state panel date and employing well-known econometric procedures for panel analysis. The authors found “no empirical support for the argument that the existence or application of the death penalty deters prospective offenders from committing homicide.” The study was published in the journal of Criminology and Public Policy and authored by Tomislav V. Kovandzic, Lynne M.
Read MoreDec 30, 2009
STUDIES: Death Penalty Costs North Carolina Nearly $11 Million a Year
A recent study published by a Duke University economist revealed North Carolina could save $11 million annually if it dropped the death penalty. Philip J. Cook, a professor at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, calculated the extra state costs of the death penalty during fiscal years 2005 and 2006. He calculated over $21 million worth of expenses that would have been saved if the death penalty had been repealed. The total included extra defense costs for capital cases in the…
Read MoreDec 28, 2009
STUDIES: Innocence Network Exonerations 2009
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 organizations, including 45 in the U.S.
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Dec 08, 2009
New Hampshire Commission Studies Cost of the Death Penalty
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 the related question of whether the…
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