Studies

The Death Penalty Information Center has conducted a survey of death row populations as reported by the various state departments of correction in January/February 2008. From that survey, the current death row population across the country is 3,263. California continues to have the highest death row population with 669 inmates. Florida follows with 388, and Texas has 370 inmates. A state-by-state breakdown appears below. Except for Illinois and the federal government, these numbers are the…

The Bureau of Justice Statistics typically releases an annual report entitled “Capital Punishment” containing tables and information on the death penalty for the previous year. Although BJS, which is part of the Department of Justice, did not publish a separate report for 2006, it did release information in tabular form that quantifies death penalty practice in the U.S. Information drawn from BJS’s recent tables includes: The number of people on death row declined from 3,245 in 2005 to 3,228…

Professor John Donohue of Yale University’s School of Law recently conducted a study of death sentences in Connecticut and found that seeking the death penalty often correlated with the race of the victim and the defendant, and not necessarily with the severity of the crimes, as the law requires. “There was basically no rational system to explain who got the death penalty,” Donohue said. “It really is about as random a process as you can possibly construct.” After reviewing 207 murder cases…

David Baker has written a thorough and insightful analysis of how the death penalty in the U.S. has been used against Native Americans. In “American Indian Executions in Historical Context,” Baker places the execution of Native Americans within the history of colonialism, slavery and the conquering of indigenous tribes in early America. The article traces these developments to the current era, about which the author concludes: The trend in American Indian executions during the present…

U.S. Supreme Court stayed the Alabama execution scheduled for night of Jan. 31. Watch the Independent Film Channel’s piece on the U.S. Supreme Court case regarding lethal injection, Baze v. Rees. The video also includes a discussion of death penalty trends with DPIC’s Richard Dieter and an interview with former Texas death row chaplain Carroll Pickett. 2007: DPIC’s Year End Report HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 2007 REPORT Executions for the year: 42 — lowest in 13 years % Executions in Texas: 62% %…

The Death Penalty Information Center has released its 13^th annual Year End Report, noting that executions have dropped to a 13-year low as a de facto moratorium took hold in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s examination of lethal injection procedures. Death sentences have also dropped considerably in recent years. DPIC projected 110 new death sentences in 2007 — the lowest number since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, and a 60% drop since 1999. According to the Bureau of Justice…

The Justice Project recently released two policy reviews that provide suggestions for preventing wrongful convictions in criminal trials. Using research and data from past exonerations, the new reports, Expanded Discovery in Criminal Cases and Jailhouse Snitch Testimony, point to the places and situations in the criminal justice system where a wrongful conviction can be easily prevented. Expanded Discovery in Criminal Cases stresses the importance of full evidentiary discovery in criminal…

The Death Penalty Project, an international organization that provides free legal representation for individuals facing the death penalty in the Caribbean and Africa, recently published A Guide to Sentencing in Capital Cases. The guide provides judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys with information and sample appeals to help them navigate the sentencing phase in cases where a mandatory death sentence for a specific crime was abolished, leaving the former death row inmate to be resentenced.

If current trends continue, New York City will likely have fewer than 500 homicides this year, the lowest number in a 12-month period since reliable NYC Police Department statistics became available in 1963. As of November 18, 2007, the police department logged 428 killings, the majority of which were committed by friends or acquaintances or were drug or gang-related. In fact, only 35 homicides this year were committed by strangers to the victims, a number described as “microscopic” in a city…

The New York Times investigated the post-exoneration lives of the 206 former inmates who were wrongfully convicted and released through DNA evidence. Fifty-three of the cases involved murder convictions, and more than 25% of those wrongfully convicted had given a false confession or incriminating statement. Working from a list provided by the Innocence Project, the Times gathered information on 137 of the 206 exonerees and were able to interview 115 of those. They found that most DNA-exonerees…