National Death Penalty Fact Sheet

Total Persons on Death Row as of April 1, 2006:  3,370 (NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, "Death Row USA")

Total Executions since 1976 August 8, 2006 - 1039. (www.deathpenaltyinfo.org)

States With the Death Penalty (38) and the Number of Executions Since 1976:

Alabama-34      Florida-60           Louisiana-27 

Virginia-97        Arizona-22          New Hampshire*          

Georgia-39       Maryland-5          Oregon-2        

New Jersey*     Pennsylvania-3     Washington-4

Arkansas-27     Idaho-1                Mississippi-7    

Wyoming-1      S. Carolina-36       Illinois-12         

S. Dakota*       New Mexico-1      California-13   

Missouri-66      New York*           Colorado-1     

Indiana-17        Montana-3            Tennessee-2                  

Connecticut-1   Kansas*                Nebraska-3      

Ohio-23            Texas-372             N. Carolina-42
 
Delaware-14     Kentucky-2           Utah-6

Nevada-12        Oklahoma-81    

Plus:  U.S. Military*    U.S. Government-3    

*Indicates jurisdictions with no executions since 1976  

States Without the Death Penalty (12):

Alaska              Maine               Minnesota                  

Vermont           Hawaii               Mass.               

N. Dakota       W. Virginia          Iowa                

Michigan          Rhode Island       Wisconsin        

Plus:  District of Columbia

The Death Penalty is Unfair:

1)      The Death Penalty is Unfair: The death penalty has never been applied fairly across race, class, and gender lines.  Who is sentenced to die often depends on the attitudes of prosecutors, where one lives, the prejudices of judges and juries, and the skills of defense lawyers.

2)     The Death Penalty Risks Killing Innocent People: Since 1976, more than 100 prisoners convicted of capital crimes and sentenced to death were released from death row with strong evidence of their innocence.  DNA tests play a major role in proving innocence. Wrongful convictions often result from false confessions, which are frequent among juveniles and the mentally retarded, mistaken eyewitness evidence, jail house snitches, white-coat fraud and junk science, and prosecutorial abuse.

3)      The Death Penalty Punishes the Poor: Most defendants are poor and are forced to depend on incompetent or token representation.  Some lawyers have slept or appeared drunk during trials.

4)      The Death Penalty is Racially Biased: Those who kill white people are far more likely to get the death penalty than those who kill black people.

5)      The Death Penalty Costs More Than Life in Prison:
Prosecuting a death penalty case is extremely expensive for a state and drains money that could be used for education and social programs.  It costs more than sentencing a prisoner to life without parole. The most comprehensive death penalty study in the country found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million more per execution than a non-death penalty murder case with a sentence of life imprisonment (Duke University, May 1993). In its review of death penalty expenses, the State of Kansas concluded that capital cases are 70% more expensive than comparable non-death penalty cases.

6)     The Death Penalty is Opposed By a Growing Number of Murdered Victims' Families: Groups such as Murdered Victims Families for Reconciliation and Journey of Hope oppose the death penalty.

7)      The Death Penalty is Not a Deterrent to Crime:
Since the death penalty was reinstated, over 80% of all executions have occurred in the South, the region with the highest murder rate.  The Northeast, the region with the lowest murder rate, has accounted for less than 1% of the executions.

8)      The Death Penalty is Not Used in Most Countries Around the World: More than half the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty in either law or practice.

Supreme Court Cases Highlighting the Flaws of the Death Penalty:

Arbitrary--Furman v. Georgia, 1972: The Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional, as cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eight Amendment because the imposition of the death penalty followed discriminatory patterns.  It was ruled that the death penalty was disproportionately imposed and carried out on certain groups (the poor and African Americans). The decision ruled on the requirement for a degree of consistency in the application of the death penalty.
-Many states responded to the landmark decision by purportedly changing their sentencing schemes to do away with discretion. 

A Broken System--Gregg v. Georgia, 1976: This case defines the beginning of America's modern era of the death penalty.  When the Supreme court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 by recognizing new statutes in Georgia, Florida, and Texas, it in effect declared that all the problems that it had recognized four years earlier would now be resolved through implementation of the new procedures contained in the statutes of these three states, statutes that established "guided discretion" for imposing a death sentence.  Almost three decades later, the Gregg ruling has not lived up to its promise. Defendants continue to be convicted and sentenced to death after being represented by inadequate counsel. Racial disparity in sentencing continues to mar the system. Juvenile offenders continue to receive death sentences in certain states. And many death row inmates clearly suffer from mental retardation or mental illness. Even more dramatically, over 100 people have been released from death row in recent years because they were wrongfully convicted. 

Racial Bias (jury selection)--Batson v. Kentucky, 1986: The Supreme Court ruled that excluding jurors based solely on race to be unconstitutional. In this case against a black man charged with burglary and receipt of stolen goods, all four black potential jurors were dismissed by the prosecution, and Batson was found guilty. The Supreme Court ruled that this was a violation of his 6^th and 14^th Amendment rights to a jury drawn from a cross section of the community and equal protection of the law.  Black potential jurors may not be struck from the jury because of race.

Racial Bias (victim's race)--McClesky v. Kemp, 1987:  In this Supreme Court case, counsel on behalf of death row prisoner Warren McClesky argued that death penalty sentences in Georgia were racially biased related to the race of the victim. The court ruled against McClesky who was executed by electrocution in 1991, ruling that racial disparities in the death penalty were not a violation of one's Constitutional right of "equal protection of the law."

Racial Bias (victim's race)--Coker vs. Georgia, 1977:  The Supreme Court ruled that use of the death penalty in rape cases is unconstitutional because the sentence is disproportionate to the crime. The Coker case resulted in the removal from death row of 20 inmates - three whites and 17 blacks - awaiting execution. See: www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/capital/timeline.html

Due Process--Ring vs. Arizona, 2002: The Supreme Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial requires that juries, not judges, determine whether factors exist to warrant the death penalty in a case, such as whether the crime was especially heinous or cruel.  The decision does not apply retroactively to cases that have reached final decisions.

Mentally Ill--Ford v. Wainwright, 1986: the Supreme Court prohibited the execution of the mentally insane and required an adversarial process for determining mental competency. In 1989, however, the Court held that the execution of persons with mental retardation was not a violation of the Eight Amendment in Penry v. Lynaugh . Mental retardation would instead be seen as a mitigating factor.

Mentally Retarded--Atkins v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 2003: The Supreme Court found that executing mentally retarded offenders is cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. 

Juveniles--Simmons v. Roper, 2003:  The Missouri Supreme Court set aside Christopher Simmons' death sentence, ruling that the execution of those who committed crimes under the age of 18 violates evolving standards of decency and is therefore prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.  The U.S. Supreme Court will reexamine the constitutionality of executing juvenile offenders.

Stages of a Death Penalty Case:

Note that not every case goes through all of the steps outlined here.  Some states have different procedures.

I. Pre-Trial                  II. Guilt Phase Trial                     III. Penalty Phase Trial

Evidence Gathering   Petition to U.S. Supreme Court    Aggravating Circumstances

Arrest                                                                       

Arraignment                  Jury Section (voir dire)               Mitigating Circumstances

Preliminary Hearing      Opening Statements                  Proportionality Review

Grand Jury                     Victim Impact Statements          Judge Sentencing

Indictment                      Defendant's Case

Information                     Closing Statement

Hearing on Pre-trial         Jury Instruction

Motion                            Verdict

Intent to Seek Death Penalty

IV. Direct Appeal              V. Post-Conviction               VI. Federal Habeas Corpus

The Appeal Process          Petition to State Trial         Petition to Federal District 

Motion for a New Trial      Court                                   Evidentiary Hearing

Appeal-State's Highest      Appeal-State's Highest        Appeal-Federal Court

Criminal Court                  Criminal Court of Appeals

Petition to U.S.                  Petition to U.S.                      En Banc Review
Supreme Court                  Supreme Court                       Petition to Supreme Court

VII. Clemency                       VIII Execution
Pardon Board                        Death Row

Executive Clemency or         Death Warrant
Commutation                         Execution