Entries tagged with “What to Know series”
What to Know Series
,Aug 11, 2026
What to Know: Junk Science in Death Penalty Cases
DPI’s “What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty. This installment looks at junk science: how flawed or overstated forensic evidence has contributed to wrongful capital convictions, and what happens when the understanding of evidence underlying a conviction changes. Why this Matters: Forensic evidence is often presented to juries as objective scientific…
Foreign Nationals
,What to Know Series
,Aug 06, 2026
What to Know: Foreign Nationals and the Death Penalty
DPI’s “What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty. Why it matters: More than 100 citizens of other countries are under sentences of death in the United States, and in nearly every reported case, arresting authorities failed to promptly inform them of their treaty right to consular assistance. Article 36 of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations…
What to Know Series
,Jul 29, 2026
What to Know: Sentencing Practices and the Death Penalty
Why it matters: State laws permitting judges to override jury decisions and the imposition of death sentences based on non-unanimous jury verdicts have contributed to Alabama and Florida’s high death sentencing rates — with nearly 20% of Alabama’s death-sentenced population on death row because of judicial override. Between 1976 and 2017, elected Alabama judges overrode jury sentencing decisions 112 times. In 91% of those cases, judges overruled jury decisions of life to impose death sentences.
What to Know Series
,Jul 21, 2026
What to Know: Prosecutorial Misconduct and the Death Penalty
DPI’s “What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty. Why it matters: More than 600 capital convictions or death sentences have been overturned or led to exonerations because of prosecutorial misconduct, and researchers say the true scope of the problem is likely far greater. DPI has identified more than 600 instances in which a capital conviction or death…
What to Know Series
,Jul 16, 2026
What to Know: Innocence and the Death Penalty
DPI’s “What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty. Why it matters: The death penalty is an irreversible punishment, and the United States has convicted, condemned, and in some cases executed people despite credible evidence of their innocence. 203 people have been exonerated from death row since 1973, across 30 states. A peer-reviewed…
What to Know Series
,Jun 11, 2026
What to Know: Clemency and the Death Penalty
DPI’s “What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty. This installment looks at clemency: what it is, who holds the power, and how often it changes the outcome of a capital case. Why it matters: The U.S. Supreme Court has described clemency as the “fail safe” of the criminal justice system, the last remedy for a wrongful conviction once the courts are…
What to Know Series
,May 13, 2026
What to Know: Jury Selection and the Death Penalty
DPI’s “What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty. Please visit DPI’s Discrimination in Jury Selection page for a deeper dive into the issue. Why it matters: Nearly four decades after the U.S. Supreme Court barred race-based juror strikes in Batson v. Kentucky (1986), studies have found that prosecutors in North Carolina capital cases still exclude…
What to Know Series
,Apr 21, 2026
What to Know: Intellectual Disability & the Death Penalty
DPI’s “What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty. Why it Matters: In 2002, the United States Supreme Court held that executing individuals with intellectual disability is unconstitutional. (Atkins v. Virgina). Before that decision, dozens of people with intellectual disabilities were legally executed. In Atkins, the Supreme Court explained that people…
What to Know Series
,Apr 07, 2026
What to Know: Race of Victim Effect and the Death Penalty
DPI’s “What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty. Why it matters:The race of victims weighs heavily in capital punishment decisions. Studies confirm that defendants with white victims are more likely to be charged capitally, sentenced to death, have those sentences upheld on appeal, and be executed. “The strongest…
What to Know Series
,Mar 23, 2026
What to Know: Mentally Ill Prisoners and the Death Penalty
DPI’s “What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty. Why it matters: While the U.S. Supreme Court has barred the execution of individuals with intellectual disabilities, no such categorical ban exists for those with severe mental illness (SMI). Consequently, people suffering from active psychosis, delusions, or severe neurobiological impairments remain…
What to Know Series
,Mar 09, 2026
What to Know: Costs and the Death Penalty
DPI’s “What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty. This installment looks at the costs associated with pursuit of death sentences and executions. Why it matters: The question at the heart of this issue is whether the assumed benefits of the death penalty are worth its costs and whether other systems might provide similar benefits at less cost. It is a…
What to Know Series
,Mar 04, 2026
What to Know: Deterrence and the Death Penalty
DPI’s “What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty. Why it matters: Deterrence is among the most commonly cited justifications for the death penalty, yet decades of research have failed to produce credible evidence that use of the death penalty has an impact on homicide rates. Key Facts: 88% of the nation’s leading criminologists said they did not…
What to Know Series
,Feb 19, 2026
What to Know: Race and the Death Penalty
DPI’s “What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty. Please visit DPI’s newly revamped Race landing page for a deeper dive into the issue. Why it matters: Black people in the capital punishment system are disproportionately represented – currently comprising 40% of the death row population despite only being 12% of the U.S. population. Key Facts…
Women
,What to Know Series
,Feb 13, 2026
What to Know: Women and the Death Penalty
DPI’s “What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty. Why it matters: Although women represent just 2% of death-sentenced prisoners, they have unique issues and have often faced gender biases at every stage of their prosecution. Fewer than 50 women are sentenced to death in the United States (October 2025). Women represent about 2% of individuals currently…