People are asking…

Tough questions about the death penalty

News about the Death Penalty
News
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Failed by the System

Melissa's case highlights just how misguided the death penalty can be. Texas may make a devastating and irreversible mistake. Read More
Director's Corner

Dr. King’s Vision on the Death Penalty

EJUSA Executive Director, Jamila Hodge, talks about Dr. King's vision on the death penalty. Read More
News

The Momentum Continues

The truth becomes clearer and louder: Americans, and our leaders, are increasingly done with the death penalty. Read More
  1. Judge Sharon Keller of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, was eventually reprimanded by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for her role in the execution of Michael Wayne Richards.
  2. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. described what had happened to death row inmate Corey Maples as “a veritable perfect storm of misfortune.”
  3. James Liebman et al, Los Tocayos Carlos.
  4. David Grann, “Trial by Fire. Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?” The New Yorker, September 7, 2009.
  5. “Non-DNA Exonerations,” Innocence Project.
  6. National Research Council of the National Academies, “Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward,” 2009.
  7. See, for example, the cases of Josiah Sutton, Timothy Durham, and Gilbert Alejandro.
  8. “Maryland’s Death Penalty. Still Here, Still Unfair. More Arbitrary and Costly.” Maryland Citizens Against State Executions, 2012.
  9. Ibid.
  10. James S. Liebman et al, A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases, 1973-1995, Columbia Law School Journal, 2000.
  11. John Roman et al, The Cost of the Death Penalty in Maryland, Urban Institute, 2008. In California, a 2011 study showed that death penalty cases are 20 times more expensive. That state has spent over $4 billion on the death penalty since 1978. Judge Arthur L. Alarcon and Paula M. Mitchell, “Executing the Will of the Voters?: A roadmap to mend or end the California legislature’s multi-billion dollar death penalty debacle,” 44 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review S41, Special Issue, 2011.
  12. John Roman et al, “The Cost of the Death Penalty in Maryland,” Urban Institute, 2008.
  13. Murder rates based on the years 2001 to 2011. FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, cited by the Death Penalty Information Center.
  14. Ibid.
  15. Michael Radelet and Traci Lacock, “Do Executions Lower Homicide Rates? The Views of Leading Criminologists,” Journal of Law and Criminology, 2008. General public’s views taken from Gallup poll, 2011. 64% of those polled say the death penalty is not a deterrent.
  16. National Research Council of the National Academies, “Deterrence and the Death Penalty,” 2012.
  17. Law enforcement murder rates based on the years 2002-2011. “Law Enforcement Officers Feloniously Killed, Table 1,” FBI Uniform Crime Report, 2011.
  18. National Survey of Police Chiefs Report in Smart on Crime Death Penalty Information Center.