Studies

A new study pub­lished in the American Journal of Political Science inves­ti­gates the con­nec­tion between death penal­ty deci­sions and the prac­tice of elect­ing judges. ​“The analy­sis pre­sent­ed con­sid­ers pub­lic opinion’s influ­ence on the com­po­si­tion of courts … and its influ­ence on judge votes in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment cas­es. In elec­tive state supreme courts, pub­lic sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment influ­ences the ide­o­log­i­cal com­po­si­tion of those courts and judge will­ing­ness to uphold death…

Researchers Marvin Zalman, Brad Smith, and Angie Kiger of Wayne State University’s Criminal Justice Department recent­ly pub­lished a study in the Justice Quarterly on the fre­quen­cy of wrong­ful con­vic­tions. After a com­pre­hen­sive review of the lit­er­a­ture con­cern­ing inno­cence, they report­ed the results of their sur­vey of Michigan police offi­cers, pros­e­cu­tors, defense lawyers and judges regard­ing their ​“esti­mates of the fre­quen­cy of wrong­ful con­vic­tion.” Respondents were asked about the…

On June 30^th, the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice released a 107-page report on the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem, call­ing it ​“dys­func­tion­al” and a ​“bro­ken sys­tem.” The Commission, chaired by for­mer Attorney General John Van de Kamp, came to the con­clu­sion that California would save hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars if cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was elim­i­nat­ed. The report states, ​“The fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims are cru­el­ly delud­ed into believ­ing that jus­tice will be…

A new study has been released that explores the cor­re­la­tions between coun­tries’ legal, polit­i­cal, and reli­gious sys­tems and their use of the death penal­ty. Professors David Greenberg from New York University and Valerie West of John Jay College exam­ined data from 193 nations to test why some coun­tries reg­u­lar­ly use cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment while oth­ers have aban­doned it alto­geth­er. They found, ​“In part, a country’s death penal­ty sta­tus is linked to its gen­er­al puni­tive­ness towards…

Prof. John Blume of Cornell University Law School has com­piled the cas­es in which an inmate’s death sen­tence was reduced because of a find­ing of men­tal retar­da­tion. His research revealed 83 such rever­sals since 2002. In Atkins v. Virginia (2002), the U.S. Supreme Court held that it is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al to apply the death penal­ty to defen­dants with men­tal retar­da­tion. The Court did not, how­ev­er, estab­lish a def­i­n­i­tion for men­tal retar­da­tion or deter­mine the pro­ce­dures for prov­ing a claim…

Maryland Governor O’Malley signed leg­is­la­tion cre­at­ing a com­mis­sion to study the death penal­ty on May 13. The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment is man­dat­ed to reflect on all sides of the issue and its mem­bers will include rep­re­sen­ta­tives from law enforce­ment, a pros­e­cu­tor, a pub­lic defend­er, and fam­i­ly mem­bers of mur­der vic­tims. The com­mis­sion begins its work in July and should sub­mit its find­ings by December 15, 2008. The fol­low­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives will serve on the…

William Neukom, the President of the American Bar Association, recent­ly wrote about the death penal­ty in con­junc­tion with a vis­it to Duke University Law School in North Carolina, where he addressed the grad­u­at­ing class. In an op-ed, Mr. Neukom not­ed that the ABA had close­ly stud­ied the death penal­ty sys­tems of eight states and found repeat­ed fail­ures to meet min­i­mum stan­dards advo­cat­ed by the ABA. He renewed the call of the ABA for a halt to exe­cu­tions until…

According to a recent study by Prof. David Sloss of the St. Louis University School of Law, and oth­ers, only a small per­cent­age of eli­gi­ble mur­der cas­es in Missouri are pros­e­cut­ed as death penal­ty cas­es, and even few­er result in a death sen­tence. Only 2.5 per­cent of defen­dants pros­e­cut­ed for inten­tion­al homi­cide are sen­tenced to death. In anoth­er 2.5 per­cent of cas­es, juries reject the death penal­ty. Ninety-five per­cent of inten­tion­al homi­cide cas­es are nev­er pre­sent­ed to the jury as…

Amnesty International recent­ly report­ed that at least 1,252 peo­ple were exe­cut­ed in 24 coun­tries and at least 3,347 peo­ple were sen­tenced to death in over 50 coun­tries in 2007. Amnesty esti­mates that there are up to 27,500 peo­ple on death row world­wide. Their fig­ures rep­re­sent a drop in exe­cu­tions from 1,591 in 2006, par­tic­u­lar­ly in China which went from over 1,000 exe­cu­tions in 2006 to 470 last year. However, exe­cu­tion fig­ures are con­sid­ered a state secret in China and the…