Studies
Items: 61 — 70
Apr 27, 2017
Study: Texas’ ‘Harsh and Inhumane’ Death-Row Conditions Amount to ‘Torture’
The conditions in which prisoners on Texas’ death row are confined are “harsh and inhumane,” violate international human rights norms, and amount to “a severe and relentless act of torture,” according to a new study by the University of Texas School of Law Human Rights Clinic.
Read MoreApr 26, 2017
Bipartisan Oklahoma Report Recommends Moratorium on Executions Pending ‘Significant Reforms’
After spending more than a year studying Oklahoma’s capital punishment practices, the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission has unanimously recommended that the state extend its current moratorium on executions “until significant reforms are accomplished.” The bipartisan commission issued its report on April 25, 2017, reaching what it characterized as “disturbing” findings that “led Commission members to question whether the death penalty can be administered in a way that ensures no innocent person is put to death.” The report contains recommendations for more than 40 reforms to virtually all areas of…
Read MoreApr 03, 2017
STUDIES: 21st-Century Executions Disproportionately Involve Defendants With Mental Illness
A new study of the case records of the men and women executed in the United States between 2000 and 2015 has found that 21st-century executions disproportionately involve prisoners diagnosed with mental illness and who have experienced traumatic child abuse.
Read MoreMar 14, 2017
STUDIES: Rarity of Executions Makes California Jurors Less Likely to Impose Death Sentences
A study published in The Yale Law Journal provides new evidence that, as public opinion continues to shift away from the death penalty, juries empaneled in capital cases may become even less representative of the community and even more prone to convict. The study—conducted by Professors Brandon Garrett (University of Virginia), Daniel Krauss (Claremont-McKenna College), and Nicholas Scurich (University of California Irvine) — found that with increased public opposition to the death penalty, more prospective jurors may be excluded from serving on capital juries because of their views against the death penalty.…
Read MoreMar 08, 2017
Reports Find Record Number of Exonerations in 2016, Blacks More Likely to be Wrongfully Convicted
Companion reports released on March 7 by the National Registry of Exonerations found record numbers of exonerations and wrongful convictions involving official misconduct in 2016, and striking evidence of racial bias both in the wrongful convictions themselves and in the time it took the judicial process to exonerate the wrongfully incarcerated. The Registry’s report, Exonerations in 2016, found a record 166 exonerations in 2016, with 54 defendants exonerated of homicide.
Read MoreJan 27, 2017
STUDIES: At Least 201 Florida Death Row Prisoners May Be Eligible for Resentencing, 134 Had Non-Unanimous Juries
A new study reports that at least 201 Florida death row prisoners — including at least 134 whom judges sentenced to death after juries had returned non-unanimous sentencing recommendations — may be eligible for resentencing hearings as a result of recent rulings by the United States and Florida Supreme Courts declaring the state’s death sentencing practices unconstitutional.
Read MoreDec 23, 2016
REPORT: Two-Thirds of Oregon’s Death Row Have Mental Impairments, History of Severe Trauma, or Were Under 21 at Offense
Most of the prisoners on Oregon’s death row suffer from significant mental impairments, according a study released on December 20, 2016 by the Fair Punishment Project at Harvard University. The Project’s analysis of case records, media reports, and opinions of Oregon legal experts found that two-thirds of the 35 people on the state’s death row “possess signs of serious mental illness or intellectual impairment, endured devastatingly severe childhood trauma, or were not old enough to legally purchase alcohol at the time the offense occurred.” The report argues that these characteristics…
Read MoreNov 16, 2016
New Study Finds Oregon Death Sentences Are Significantly More Costly Than Life Sentences
A new study by Lewis & Clark Law School and Seattle University that examined the costs of hundreds of aggravated murder and murder cases in Oregon has concluded that “maintaining the death penalty incurs a significant financial burden on Oregon taxpayers.” The researchers found that the average trial and incarceration costs of an Oregon murder case that results in a death penalty are almost double those in a murder case that results in a sentence of life imprisonment or a term of years. Excluding state prison costs, the study found,…
Read MoreOct 24, 2016
STUDIES: Death Penalty Adversely Affects Families of Victims and Defendants
The death penalty adversely affects both families of murder victims and families of the accused, according to two recent journal articles. In his Psychology Today blog, Talking About Trauma, psychologist Dr. Robert T. Muller (pictured) reports that psychological studies have have found that the death penalty produces negative effects on families and friends of murder victims (referred to as “co-victims”).
Read MoreOct 04, 2016
Summer 2016 “Death Row USA” Shows Ongoing Decline in Death Row Populations
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund reports that America’s death rows have continued to decline in size, with 2,905 men and women on death row across the United States as of July 1, 2016. The new figures, reported in the organization’s Summer 2016 edition of its quarterly publication, Death Row USA, represent a 14% decline from the 3,366 prisoners who were on death row one decade earlier. The shrinking of death row populations across the country has exceeded the number of executions during that period, meaning that more prisoners have been…
Read More