Studies

The Indiana Death Penalty Assessment Team, under the aus­pices of the American Bar Association, has called for a halt to exe­cu­tions in the state because of con­cerns about the arbi­trari­ness of the state’s death penal­ty. ​“The seem­ing­ly ran­dom process of charg­ing deci­sions, plea agree­ments, and jury rec­om­men­da­tions is just part of a death penal­ty sys­tem that has apt­ly been called Indiana’s ​‘oth­er lot­tery’,” the group not­ed in its report. The sev­en-mem­ber Indiana pan­el was organized…

A new report issued by Amnesty International focus­es on the case of Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis to illus­trate the issue of inno­cence and the legal hur­dles that death row inmates face in seek­ing judi­cial relief. The report — ​‘Where is the jus­tice for me?’ The case of Troy Davis, Facing Execution in Georgia — notes that Davis has been on death row for 15 years for a mur­der that he main­tains he did not com­mit. Many of the state’s wit­ness­es against Davis have since…

Christopher Scott Emmett could face exe­cu­tion in Virginia before the end of the year despite the fact that his legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion fell short of decades-old American Bar Association stan­dards, accord­ing to an inves­ti­ga­tion by McClatchy Newspapers reporter Stephen Henderson. Emmett was sen­tenced to death in 2001, and his sto­ry was among the 73 cas­es reviewed recent­ly in the McClatchy series. During the sen­tenc­ing phase of his tri­al, Emmett’s pub­lic defend­er, Lawrence D. Gott,…

A recent four-part news inves­ti­ga­tion by McClatchey News exam­ined the qual­i­ty of coun­sel in four death penal­ty states. The series, ​“No Defense: Shortcut to Death Row,” explores cap­i­tal rep­re­sen­ta­tion in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Virginia. The research revealed that those states have exten­sive prob­lems with ade­quate coun­sel, a fact under­scored in the series through case exam­ples that illus­trate the sys­tems’ inad­e­qua­cies. The series…

Stateline​.org​’s recent ​“State of the States” report fea­tures an exten­sive arti­cle on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment trends in the United States. The piece includes a thor­ough review of lethal injec­tion chal­lenges in the states, as well as a brief update on the issue of inno­cence and an overview of oth­er state leg­isla­tive devel­op­ments, such as efforts to autho­rize the death penal­ty for some crimes oth­er than mur­der. The arti­cle notes that ques­tions about lethal injec­tion put the death…

EXECUTION REPRIEVES Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio grant­ed tem­po­rary reprieves to three inmates sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in the next 5 weeks in order to allow more time to con­sid­er whether clemen­cy should be grant­ed: Kenneth Biros, James Filiaggi, and Christopher Newton. (Jan. 19, 2007). See…

After exten­sive pub­lic hear­ings, the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission issued a report on January 2 call­ing for an end to the state’s death penal­ty and replac­ing it with a sen­tence of life with­out parole. The 13-mem­ber Commission was appoint­ed by the state leg­is­la­ture, which also placed a mora­to­ri­um on all exe­cu­tions until a report was pre­pared. The report cit­ed the risks of exe­cut­ing the inno­cent, the high costs of the death penal­ty, and soci­ety’s evolv­ing stan­dards of decency…

The lat­est edi­tion of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s ​“Death Row, USA” reports that the num­ber of peo­ple on death row in the United States has con­tin­ued to decline, falling to 3,344 as of October 1, 2006. The size of death row has been declin­ing since 2000 after 25 years of steady increas­es. For the first time in many years, Florida (398) sur­passed Texas (392) in the size of its deathrow. California (657) con­tin­ued to have the largest death…

DPIC’s 12^th annu­al Year End Report was released on December 14 and reveals a broad decline in the use of the death penal­ty in the U.S. based on a num­ber of fac­tors: the pub­lic now favors life with­out parole over the death penal­ty; the num­ber of exe­cu­tions has dropped to the fewest in a decade, in part because of chal­lenges to the lethal injec­tion process; and the annu­al num­ber of death sen­tences is now at a 30-year low. The report notes that var­i­ous states have put a hold on all…