STUDIES: Most Likely Outcome of Death Sentence Is That It Will Be Reversed

A new study from researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill finds that the most like­ly out­come for a cap­i­tal case once a death sen­tence has been imposed is that the defen­dan­t’s con­vic­tion or sen­tence will be reversed on appeal. Execution is only the third most likely outcome. 

Of the 8,466 peo­ple sen­tenced to death from 1976 – 2013, 3,194 (38%) had their sen­tence or con­vic­tion over­turned. 2,979 (35%) remained on death row at the time of the study. Fewer than 1 in 6 defen­dants — 1,359 (16%) — were exe­cut­ed. The rest died on death row of sui­cide or nat­ur­al caus­es, had their sen­tence com­mut­ed, or were removed from death row for miscellaneous reasons. 

The study also notes that these rates vary dra­mat­i­cal­ly from state to state, with states aver­ag­ing about a 13% like­li­hood of exe­cut­ing a death sen­tence, and only one state — Virginia — exe­cut­ing more than half of those sen­tenced to death. ​“Regardless of one’s view of the death penal­ty in prin­ci­ple, these num­bers raise ques­tions about how the death penal­ty is applied in prac­tice,” the authors note. ​“The wide dif­fer­ences across states in the odds of car­ry­ing out a death sen­tence are poten­tial­ly trou­bling from an equal pro­tec­tion stand­point.” They con­clude, ​“A sys­tem that ensures pro­longed court time, auto­mat­ic appeals for the con­vict­ed inmate – most of whom are even­tu­al­ly suc­cess­ful – and only a small chance of actu­al exe­cu­tion is a sys­tem built on false promis­es for every­one, and indeed one that seems to verge on tor­ture.” (Click here to enlarge image.)