Studies
Items: 321 — 330
Nov 24, 2009
NEW VOICES: Kentucky Public Defenders Call for Moratorium on Executions
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…
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Nov 18, 2009
Death Sentences Declining in Texas
Death sentences have dropped significantly over the last few years in Texas according to a study by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The number of death sentences is at a 35-year low as prosecutors have pushed for fewer death sentences and juries have become less willing to impose them. Since 2005, defendants may receive a sentence of life without parole instead of the death penalty. Before this change, the only alternative to the death penalty in Texas…
Read MoreNov 10, 2009
The Death Penalty in the State of Washington
The Walla-Walla Union Bulletin is focusing on the state’s death penalty in a 4‑part series entitled, “Executing Justice.” The series examines issues such as the costs of the death penalty, arbitrariness, and the appeals process. Washington currently has eight men on death row, and has not had an execution since 2001. In almost 30 years, there has been only one non-consensual execution. Four defendants have been executed since the death penalty was…
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Nov 06, 2009
STUDIES: Disparate Administration of the Military Death Penalty
A recent study of the military death penalty by Professor David Baldus revealed disparities depending on whether the victim in the underlying crime was also a member of the military or was a civilian. The paper was co-authored by Professors Catherine Grosso and George Woodworth and will be published by the Michigan Journal of Law Reform. The authors note that despite a 1984 executive order that “defined death eligible murder in the armed forces…
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Oct 28, 2009
NEW RESOURCES: The Status of the Death Penalty in Countries Comprising the European Security Area
The OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), the world’s largest regional security organization comprised of 56 States including the U.S., recently published a 2009 Background Paper on The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area. It was prepared by the OSCE’s Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), and updates the 2008 background paper of the same title. The 2009 paper highlights the changes in status of the death penalty in…
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Oct 20, 2009
STUDIES: Disparities in Legal Representation in Harris County, Texas
Scott Phillips, a professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Denver, recently published a study that revealed disparities in who receives the death penalty inTexas. Phillips studied the 504 death penalty cases that occurred between 1992 and 1999 in Harris County (Houston and surrounding areas). Harris County is the largest jurisdiction in the United States to use a court-appointment system for selecting lawyers to defend…
Read MoreOct 15, 2009
Gallup Poll: Support for Death Penalty Remains Near 25-Year Low
The latest Gallup Poll on the death penalty shows 65% of Americans support the death penalty, significantly lower than the 80% support recorded in 1994 and near the lowest support of 64% in the past 25 years recorded last year. Only 57% believe the death penalty is fairly applied, and 59% of Americans believe that an innocent person has been executed in the last five years. Gallup reported that support for the death penalty is lower if Americans are offered an explicit…
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Oct 13, 2009
STUDIES: FBI Uniform Crime Report Finds Murder Rates Declined in 2008
The annual crime report released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed a decline in the national murder rate. The rate dropped 4.7% in 2008 compared to 2007. Despite a regional decline, the South still has the highest murder rate among the four geographic regions: 6.6 murders per 100,000 people, higher than the national rate of 5.4. The Northeast still maintains the lowest murder rate at 4.2. There were 16,272 murders or non-negligent manslaughters in…
Read MoreOct 07, 2009
OPINION: Florida’s Death Penalty System Still ‘Fraught with Problems’
A recent op-ed in the Florida Times-Union pointed to continuing problems in Florida’s death penalty system despite prior recommendations for change in an American Bar Association report three years ago. The article was written by Raoul Cantero III, a former Florida Supreme Court justice appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, and Mark Schlakman, a senior program director for Florida State University’s Center for the Advancement of Human Rights. The authors state…
Read MoreOct 02, 2009
STUDIES: Errors by Texas Medical Examiners Led to Wrongful Convictions
A recent investigaton by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram uncovered a series of mistakes by medical examiners in Texas. “Medical examiners have goofed up eye color and gender. They’ve made mistakes on the locations of scars or tattoos, described gallbladders and appendixes that had long since been removed – even confused one body for another,” noted the story. Webb County Chief Medical Examiner Corinne Stern was criticized for an autopsy she performed on an infant while…
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