On September 18, the American Bar Association​’s Death Penalty Due Process Review Project released its lat­est report, focus­ing on the fair­ness and accu­ra­cy of Texas​’s death penal­ty sys­tem. The report found: ​“In many areas, Texas appears out of step with bet­ter prac­tices imple­ment­ed in oth­er cap­i­tal juris­dic­tions, fails to rely upon sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly reli­able meth­ods and process­es in the admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty, and pro­vides the pub­lic with inad­e­quate infor­ma­tion to under­stand and eval­u­ate cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state.” (Exec. Sum.) The assess­ment made sev­er­al rec­om­men­da­tions to help pre­vent wrong­ful con­vic­tions and improve due process, includ­ing requir­ing the indef­i­nite preser­va­tion of bio­log­i­cal evi­dence in vio­lent crimes, aban­don­ing the law’s empha­sis on pre­dict­ing the ​“future dan­ger­ous­ness” of the defen­dant in decid­ing death sen­tences, and enact­ing appro­pri­ate statutes to deal with cap­i­tal defen­dants with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties and severe men­tal ill­ness. The report com­mend­ed Texas on recent improve­ments to their jus­tice sys­tem such as bet­ter line­up pro­ce­dures, dis­clo­sure of police reports to the defense, and the estab­lish­ment of two defend­er offices to pro­vide cap­i­tal rep­re­sen­ta­tion through­out the state. The assess­ment team includ­ed Professor Jennifer Laurin from the University of Texas School of Law (Chair) and for­mer Texas Governor Mark White.

Texas leads the coun­try in exe­cu­tions since 1976 with 503, includ­ing 11 so far in 2013. Death sen­tences, how­ev­er, have declined marked­ly in recent years.

(B. Grissom, ​“Bar Association: Texas Death Penalty System Falls Short,” Texas Tribune, September 18, 2013; Texas Death Penalty Assessment Report, American Bar Association, September 18, 2013). See Studies for oth­er state assessments.

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