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- One in 25 criminal defendants who has been handed a death sentence in the United States has likely been erroneously convicted. That number—4.1% to be exact—comes from a new analysis of more than 3 decades of data on death sentences and death row exonerations across the United States.
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The vast majority of people exonerated from death row are Black or Latinx, and more than half of death row exonerees are Black. Studies consistently demonstrate that the race of the accused and/or race of the victim plays an arbitrary yet determinative role in the administration of the death penalty.
Exonerations by 5-Year Span. From 1973-1999, there were an average of 3.03 exonerations per year. From 2000-2020, there have been an average of 4.29 exonerations per year. The Death Penalty Information Center is a non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information about capital punishment.….
Feb 18, 2021 · The breadth and geographic arbitrariness of these exonerations demonstrate that wherever capital cases may be tried, innocent defendants face a risk of being wrongfully sent to death row. 1 From Furman through February 15, 2021, 1,532 prisoners have been executed in the United States.
- Overview
- At Issue
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A punishment that is administered in an arbitrary way — that is, imposed on some individuals but not on others, with no valid justification for the difference — is unconstitutionally cruel, just as an excessively harsh punishment is cruel. Arbitrary punishments also open the door to racial and other discrimination: if the sentencing authority has i...
More than forty years of evidence strongly suggests that the Court’s guidelines have been ineffective. Irrelevant factors such as race, poverty, and geography still seem to determine who is sentenced to death. Short of applying the death penalty in all murder cases (a path condemned by the Supreme Court), it may be impossible to devise rules that c...
DPIC provides statistics on executions, death sentences, and death row that include demographic information on the defendant and victim. DPIC has also highlighted relevant studies demonstrating the continued arbitrariness in the application of the death penalty.
Dec 31, 1993 · Georgia that the death penalty as then applied was arbitrary and capricious and therefore unconstitutional, a majority of the Justices expected that the adoption of narrowly crafted sentencing procedures would protect against innocent persons being sentenced to death.
Jun 26, 2023 · Factors contributing to the arbitrariness of the death penalty: Almost all death row inmates could not afford their own attorney at trial. Court-appointed attorneys often lack the experience necessary for capital trials and are overworked and underpaid.
Sep 8, 2023 · Since 1973, 197 former death-row prisoners have been exonerated of all charges related to the wrongful convictions that had put them on death row. At Issue It is now clear that innocent defendants will be convicted and sentenced to death with some regularity as long as the death penalty exists.
