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."
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)
| Death Penalty : Unequal Justice : Press Releases | view all |
Don't Kill in Our Names
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 Praises Supreme Court Refusal of 'Sleeping Lawyer' Case As 'Acknowledgment and Reminder' of Death Penalty Problems
NEW YORK - This morning the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Texas authorities who claimed that a man received adequate representation from a lawyer who slept through portions of his trial, which was tainted with anti-gay bias.
Discarded Abu-Jamal Death Sentence More Proof of Death Penalty System Plagued By Ineffective Counsel, ACLU Says
WASHINGTON--Today's decision by U.S. District Judge William Yohn to throw out Mumia Abu-Jamal's death sentence due to improper courtroom procedure underscores the point that our nation's death penalty system is riddled with flaws.
ACLU Urges Congress to Ensure Competent Counsel in Death Penalty Cases; Says Tragic Examples Demonstrate Flaws in Current System
WASHINGTON -- Citing numerous examples of incompetent counsel in recent death penalty cases and inequities in the imposition of capital punishment in America, the American Civil Liberties Union called upon Congress today to ensure effective legal representation for all defendants facing possible execution.
ACLU Calls Upon Congress to Enact a Federal Moratorium on Executions
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.
| Death Penalty : Unequal Justice : Publications | view all |
The Death Penalty in Maryland
University of Maryland Study
Deadly Speculation: Misleading Texas Capital Juries with false predictions of Future Dangerousness
Scattered justice: geographic disparities of the death penalty
New ACLU Report Finds Virginia Death Penalty System Riddled with Flaws, Recommends Sweeping Changes
RICHMOND, VA - Virginia's death penalty system is so flawed that it cannot ensure a reliable determination of guilt or innocence, according to an American Civil Liberties Union study released today.
| Death Penalty : Unequal Justice : Legal Documents |
In Re: Darold Stenson - ACLU and ACLU of Washington Amicus Brief
In Re: Darold Stenson - Affidavit of David J. Baldus
ACLU Amicus Brief in Lawrence v. Florida
| Death Penalty : Unequal Justice : Legislative Documents |
LCCR Letter to the Senate Urging Cosponsorship of the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act of 2001
| Death Penalty : Unequal Justice : Resources |
Who Survives on Death Row? An Individual and Contextual Analysis
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.
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