Death Penalty:
The death penalty is the ultimate denial of civil liberties. In the past 35 years, 132 inmates were found to be innocent and released from death row. The ACLU Capital Punishment Project is fighting for the end of the death penalty by supporting moratorium and repeal movements through public education and advocacy. We are engaged in systemic reform of the death penalty process, and case-specific litigation highlighting some of its fundamental flaws.
The ACLU opposes capital punishment as a clear violation of the Eighth Amendment's
ban on cruel and unusual punishments. One reason the death penalty presents
such a clear Eighth Amendment violation is that it is routinely imposed based
on wholly improper factors, such as race, class, venue, the quality of counsel,
whether the defendant is a resident of or a visitor to the jurisdiction in
which the case is tried. Unequal justice is no justice at all.
ACLU Challenges Unfair Administration of the Death Penalty in Washington State
On November 4, 2008, the ACLU filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Darold J. Stenson, urging the Washington Supreme Court to stay his impending execution. The brief contended that his execution would be unfair and unconstitutionally arbitrary given new evidence documenting racial, geographic, and economic disparities in the administration of the death penalty in Washington. The brief relied on a statistical analysis conducted by David Baldus, a leading expert, which documented these disparities. On November 19, 2008, the Washington Supreme Court denied the stay and appellate petition on procedural grounds without addressing any of the evidence of discrimination and arbitrariness. > Read the ACLU's friend-of-the-court brief to the Washington State Supreme Court >> > Read the affadavit submitted by David J. Baldus >>
Study Finds Elected Judges Biased in Favor of Death A recent study has found that the practice of electing appellate judges makes them substantially less likely to reverse death penalty cases. Written by two political science professors from Texas, the study is entitled, "State Public Opinion, the Death Penalty, and the Practice of Electing Judges," and has been published in the American Journal of Political Science (Vol. 52, No. 2, April 2008, pp. 360-373). Judges in the vast majority of the "death belt states" are elected. Texas, North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi and Tennessee - which together have accounted for just under 50 percent of all executions in the past 35 years - are among only ten states that hold partisan judicial elections.
Executions Linked to Low Education Levels According to a July 3, 2008, article in Scientific American entitled, "Who Will Die? Computer Predicts Which Death Row Inmates Will Be Executed," the death row inmates "most likely to be executed are those with the lowest levels of education." The article reports that researchers have developed a computer system that can predict with
92 percent accuracy which death row inmates are most likely to be executed, and that low education level is the best forecaster of an inmate's fate. Read the article >>
Report Finds Minority Death Row Inmates Convicted of Killing Whites More Likely to Face Execution
A recent study published in the American Sociological Review found that African-American and Hispanic inmates on death row who are convicted of killing white victims are significantly more likely to be executed than other offenders. The report also finds that the political and social climate of the state in which inmates are imprisoned influences whether they will be executed or not. Learn More >>
South Carolina Prosecutors' Decisions on Seeking Death Discriminate on Race, Gender and Geography
Prosecutors in South Carolina are more likely to seek the death penalty when the victim was white, when the victim was female, and when the crime occurred in a rural area, according to a study published in South Carolina Law Review in November 2006. Conclusions of the study by Professor Isaac Unah of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and attorney Michael Songer include:
> South Carolina prosecutors "are 3 times more likely to seek the death
penalty in white victim cases than in black victim cases."
> "Prosecutors are 3.5 times more likely to seek the death penalty when
a black defendant kills a white victim than in all other defendant/victim
combinations combined.
> "Cases involving female victims are 2.5 times as likely
to result in capital prosecutions as cases with male victims."
> "[P]rosecutors in rural districts are 5 times more likely to seek the
death penalty than their urban counterparts."
See Songer, Michael J. and Unah, Isaac, "The Effect of Race, Gender, and Location on Prosecutorial Decision to Seek the Death Penalty in South Carolina." South Carolina Law Review, Vol. 58, November 2006. An abstract of the article is available at SSRN:http://ssrn.com/abstract=922533
Newspaper in State Capital Decries Quality of Representation in Death
Penalty Cases
According to a current Austin American-Statesman series,
incomplete, incomprehensible or improperly argued habeas corpus petitions and
direct appeals in the Texas court system are routinely bungled as 273 people
have been executed under this shoddy taxpayer paid system. The
American-Statesman's review points to a failed court system that exercises
little oversight into the quality of writs and attorneys who fall below
professional standards.
Boilerplate copies text from previous appeals and a
lack of investigation and presentation of mitigating evidence are presented
by incompetent lawyers who have little regulation or oversight by the Texas
legal system. Don Vernay, a New Mexico appeals lawyer is quoted to say "People aren't being executed; they're being murdered by their lawyers" in
Chuck Lindell's series. Read
the Article >>(Off-site Link) Read
the Series >>(Off-site Link)
Don't Kill in Our Names (06/09/2003) Murder victims who oppose the death penalty often have a tough time being heard. But a new book that profiles 10 such people may change that.
ACLU Calls Upon Congress to Enact a Federal Moratorium on Executions (06/19/2001) WASHINGTON -- In the aftermath of the second federal execution in as many weeks, the American Civil Liberties Union today urged Congress to immediately pass a moratorium on further federal executions.
Who Survives on Death Row? An Individual and Contextual Analysis (08/02/2007) An article of the American Sociological Review by David Jacobs and Zhenchao Qian of Ohio State University, Jason T. Carmichael of McGill University and Stephanie L. Kent of Cleveland State University.
