FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 
Wednesday, December 20, 2000 CONTACT: BRENDA BOWSER
(202) 293‑6970

2000 REVIEW OF DEATH PENALTY FINDS WATERSHED YEAR OF CHANGE

Number of exon­er­at­ed death row inmates increas­es to 90 in 2000; Studies find flaws in sys­tem and spur polit­i­cal action

WASHINGTON, DC — The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) today released its annu­al Year End Report show­ing that a steady sequence of events — includ­ing six releas­es from death row, numer­ous reports on the unfair­ness of the process, and gov­ern­men­tal action to lim­it or halt the death penal­ty — pro­duced a sharp decline in pub­lic sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment over the past year. 

The DPIC report reveals that the first year of the new mil­len­ni­um, dur­ing which death row inmate exe­cu­tions decreased from last year’s total of 98 to 85, was a time of sig­nif­i­cant steps toward review­ing the fair­ness and accu­ra­cy of death penalty application. 

Among the events shap­ing this year’s chal­lenges to the death penal­ty was a Columbia University Law School study of every com­plet­ed death penal­ty appeal since 1973, when states began rein­stat­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, through 1995. The study found that the over­whelm­ing major­i­ty of these tri­als were con­duct­ed in vio­la­tion of basic due process, and the pub­lic can have lit­tle con­fi­dence that all mis­takes are caught dur­ing the appeals process. 

A sec­ond study, con­duct­ed by the United States Justice Department and released in September, showed racial and geo­graph­ic dis­par­i­ties in the fed­er­al death penal­ty. The find­ings led to President Clinton’s recent deci­sion to grant a six-month reprieve to Juan Raul Garza, the first fed­er­al death row inmate sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in almost 40 years. 

DPIC report­ed that the rever­sal of years of pres­sure to speed up exe­cu­tions reflects a nation­al trend iden­ti­fied in a February Gallup Poll. The poll revealed that pub­lic sup­port for the death penal­ty has dropped to its low­est lev­el in 19 years. It also found that while 66 per­cent of Americans favor cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, this num­ber is 14 per­cent­age points low­er than it was in 1994, and sup­port declined even fur­ther when respon­dents were allowed to choose life with­out parole as an alternative sentence. 

According to today’s report, the United States con­tin­ues to receive pres­sure from the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty to live up to its com­mit­ment to human rights by address­ing the death penal­ty. National reli­gious lead­ers, civ­il rights orga­ni­za­tions and legal experts are also align­ing them­selves with for­mer pro­po­nents of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment to call for a rad­i­cal re-think­ing of exe­cu­tions as a form of pun­ish­ment in the United States. One exam­ple of this unprece­dent­ed change occurred in January when Illinois Governor George Ryan, a long-stand­ing sup­port­er of the death penal­ty, estab­lished a statewide mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty and appoint­ed a blue-rib­bon com­mis­sion to inves­ti­gate why so many errors were being made in capital cases. 

Next year, efforts by state leg­is­la­tors, for­mer judges, Congressional law­mak­ers, reli­gious and inter­na­tion­al lead­ers to estab­lish a mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty are expect­ed to con­tin­ue and increase. In the wake of stud­ies and cas­es demon­strat­ing mis­takes in the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty, DPIC’s report fore­casts that dur­ing 2001 states will con­sid­er a vari­ety of pro­pos­als for reform, for fur­ther study, for halt­ing exe­cu­tions, and even for abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty alto­geth­er. This year, two bills — the Innocence Protection Act and the Federal Death Penalty Moratorium Act — were intro­duced in Congress with bipar­ti­san sup­port and a num­ber of state leg­isla­tive bod­ies con­sid­ered sim­i­lar mea­sures. In addi­tion, the American Bar Association renewed its call for a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, and new orga­ni­za­tions work­ing on the issue have formed at a rapid pace. 

DPIC is a non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion serv­ing the media and the pub­lic with analy­sis and infor­ma­tion on issues con­cern­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The Center was found­ed in 1990 and serves as a resource to edu­ca­tors and those work­ing on this issue. 

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NOTE: A copy of
​‘A Watershed Year of Change: New Revelations About Death Penalty Reverse Years of Division
is avail­able on DPIC’s Web Site.