Civil Rights Documents and Cases
 The Death Penalty
History & Statistics
A State-by-State Look at Capital Punishment
Of the 53 jurisdictions including the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the federal government and the military, all but 13 allow the death penalty. Use our handy map to see at a glance what those jurisdictions are, and to get more information on how individual jurisdictions handle the issue.
Articles and Analysis
- Connecticut Supreme Court Leaves No Doubt About the Constitutionality of the Death Penalty
In a matter-of-fact decision belying the case's significance, the Connecticut Supreme Court has voted 4-3 to allow once again the execution of death row inmates in state. The decision represents the first time the seven sitting justices have upheld the constitutionality of the state death penalty. It affirms the death sentence of a state inmate for the first time since such sentences were invalidated as the result of the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case Furman v. Georgia.
- Judge Upholds New York Governor in Dispute over Death Penalty Prosecution
In this ruling, a New York judge upheld Governor George Pataki's removal of the Bronx district attorney from prosecuting the case of a murdered police officer. The judge's decision to dismiss District Attorney Robert Johnson's lawsuit means state Attorney General Dennis Vacco, whom the governor named to take over for Johnson, can continue prosecuting the case. Vacco plans to seek the death penalty against Angel Diaz, who is accused of killing Officer Kevin Gillespie during a shootout in the Bronx in March. The governor removed Johnson because he felt Johnson was not seriously considering seeking the death penalty in the case. He also contended that such a stance could undermine the whole death penalty statute, since defendants might challenge the law by arguing that it was not being enforced uniformly throughout the state. Johnson sued, claiming he never ruled out the death penalty in the case and that the governor had overstepped his powers.
- Michael Ross Tries for Damage Control
Convicted serial killer Michael Ross remains determined to stipulate his own execution, and Connecticut officials may be willing to try at least one more time to go along with him.
- Post-Conviction Relief Review Now Mandatory In New Jersey Capital Cases
In a decision that may lead to further delays in carrying out capital sentences, a divided New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that post-conviction relief applications in death penalty cases cannot automatically be waived by competent defendants. The case involved John Martini, a convicted murderer, who did not want to continue to challenge his death sentence.
- Fine-Tuning the Death Penalty in New Jersey
Making families of murder victims parties in capital cases for the first time, the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld a controversial statute that allows relatives to testify during the sentencing phase of trials, but subject to a host of newly devised procedural safeguards.
- Plans to Boost Death Row Payroll
California Gov. Pete Wilson has proposed dramatically increasing the numbers and pay of attorneys who defend death row inmates.
- California Death Sentence Reversed Due to Incompetence
For the first time in 2 1/2 years, the California Supreme Court has reversed both the conviction and death sentence in a capital murder case. The court ruled that Troy Lee Jones' trial attorney failed to provide effective assistance of counsel.
- Supreme Court Limits Death Row Appeals
The Court's unanimous ruling upholding an important part of a new anti-terrorism law that restricts appeals by death-row prisoners and other convicts. Rejecting a challenge to the law in a case involving a death-row inmate from Georgia, Chief Justice William Rehnquist said the law does not improperly limit the Supreme Court's own ability to consider successive appeals by inmates against their convictions or sentences.
- Virginia Death Row Inmate Loses Appeal
On June 20, 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to throw out
the death sentence for a Virginia killer who claimed prosecutors
ambushed him by producing surprise evidence linking him to two
other murders during the penalty phase of the trial. By a 5-4 vote, the
Court said Coleman Wayne Gray could not raise the claim in a
federal appeal of a state court conviction.
- Warrants For Death
A former Connecticut lawyer who faces trial, and possibly death, in a murder-for-hire plot contends that the death penalty is so unusual in New England that it must be re-examined for its constitutionality.
- Commentary: Jamal's Last Stand: Infamous Murder Case May Be Significant Test of New Habeas Statute
Stuart Taylor Jr. examines how the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal stands as an example of the need for federal courts to remain open to new evidence, even after seemingly intolerable delays in carrying out the sentence of a defendant who was convicted in 1982 of murdering a police officer.
- Ross Will Not Retreat
Although the Connecticut Supreme Court declined to answer key questions in convicted serial killer Michael Ross' effort to die, Ross is still determined to avoid a full-blown penalty hearing and to accept a sentence of death.
- Federal Court Weighs in on California Rules for Death Row Cases
Defense lawyers have long griped that the California Supreme Court's old procedural rules for handling death row inmates' habeas corpus claims were hopelessly muddled. Now a federal appeals court has joined the chorus of criticism, ruling that federal courts should not reject prisoners' habeas claims just because the California court found that the claims were filed too late.
- Supreme Court Upholds Military Death Penalty
Here is the Supreme Courts June 3, 1996, decision upholding the military death penalty. The Court ruled that the president, as commander-in-chief, has the authority to establish rules for capital punishment for military personnel.
- High Court Justices Seem Uncertain Where Habeas Jurisdiction Stands
The Supreme Court hears arguments on a Georgia death penalty case that may affect not only the hundreds of inmates on death rows around the country but the authority of the Court itself.
- Court Ponders Limits of its Own Power
A showdown will likely to occur on June 3rd when the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Ellis Wayne Felker v. Tony Turpin, Warden, a case which pits a Georgia capital crime convict against a newly-enacted law that would drastically curtail his ability to appeal his case to the federal courts.
- Judges Rules California Doesn't Qualify to Use New Habeas Law
A federal judge rules that California cannot use a new federal law to speed up death row prisoners' habeas corpus proceedings, because the state's system for appointing and paying appellate counsel falls short of the law's requirements.
- California Judge Seems Ready to Block Habeas Law
A San Francisco federal judge suggests that he plans to hand a total victory to defense lawyers challenging strict new timetables for filing federal habeas corpus petitions in death penalty cases.
- With Habeas Reform, Capital Defense is Even More Daunting
Naftali Bendavid of Legal Times examines why reform of the death penalty appeals process, or habeas corpus, will probably exacerbate what many consider a critical shortage of qualified death row lawyers.
- The Michael Ross Case: Why A Killer Offers To Die
From any perspective, the story of Michael Ross is an American tragedy. It is the story of the waste of at least nine lives -- the lives of the eight women whom Ross brutally raped and murdered, and his own, now destined to be spent in a cell or to end on a gurney if he is executed by the state of Connecticut. It is the story of a troubled farm family and the destructive mental illness that it may have spawned. And it is the story of an imperfect justice system given the responsibility of deciding the ultimate punishment. Because of the significance of Ross' case -- he is the first man sentenced to death in Connecticut in over a quarter of a century -- and its potential legal precedent, the editors of The Connecticut Law Tribune decided that it was important to understand Ross' decision to accept death for his crimes. This article is the result of six months of interviews with Ross, his lawyers, prosecutors, police and others intimately familiar with his case.
- Mulling the Death Penalty in the Unabomber Case
Federal officials have managed to disclose a vast array of information explaining why they believe Theodore Kaczynski is the elusive Unabomber. Charles Finnie of Legal Times reports on the one thing Justice Department officials are keeping well under wraps: the prospect of invoking the federal death penalty in the case.
- Habeas Bill May Boomerang at First
Ready or not, federal habeas corpus reform is finally here. Deborah Yaffe of The Recorder reports the initial effect of the bill is likely to be litigation-spurred delays in executions -- even though the bill was pushed by conservatives fed up with the slow grinding of the capital punishment machinery.
- Governor and D.A. Battle Over New York Death Penalty
The public feud between New York Governor George Pataki and Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson over the state's death penalty is heading to court. At issue is whether the governor had the right to remove the prosecutor from a case involving the fatal shooting of a police officer.
- Shargel Diary - Part One
Gerald Shargel is considered one of the nation's top criminal defense lawyers and has defended organized crime figures. He's agreed to share some of his thoughts and views as he defends accused murderer Chen Jia Wu in a case that could result in the death penalty.
- Mumia Abu-Jamal Sues NPR, Claiming Censorship
Mumia Abu -Jamal, a nationally-known journalist serving a death sentence for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer, says National Public Radio violated his First Amendment rights. In a civil lawsuit filed in federal court,the former radio journalist contends that NPR decided not to run a recorded broadcast of his death-row commentary for the show ''All Things Considered'' because of political pressure from the Fraternal Order of Police and U.S. Sen. Robert Dole.
- Ruling on Death-Penalty Jurors Prompts Sharp Dissents
Over a pair of sharp dissents, the Georgia Supreme Court upholds a death penalty imposed by a jury from which the trial judge excluded five people who had doubts about capital punishment.
- Should Death Sentence Be a Judgment by Default?
The New Jersey Supreme Court has dealt with almost every issue that could arise in a death penalty case, but always in the context of appeals of death row prisoners who wanted to stop their executions. Now the court has to decide whether the state -- as executioner -- has a duty to ensure that a murderer who wants to be executed was properly convicted.
- Dead Man Walking - Analysis
Two lawyers take a look at the death penalty as portrayed in Tim Robbins' film, Dead Man Walking. David George lays out the realities of the death penalty process from a legal standpoint, while Nancy Savitt examines its effects on those involved.
- When Death Comes Knocking at Your Door
John Peoples Jr. has spent more than a decade on death row in Alabama. He says he would be dead if not for the efforts of a New York lawyer. He is not alone. Russ Bleemer of the New Jersey Law Journal explains why many death row inmates in the South turn to Northern lawyers.
- Capital Punishment and Voices From Death Row
A growing number of condemned prisoners are asking the state to follow through on its promise to execute them.
- My Journey Toward the Light: A View from Death Row
Convicted rapist and murderer Michael Ross offers his views on the death penalty. Ross has spent over eight years on death row in Connecticut.
- For Death Row Prisoner, a Change of Heart
William Kirkpatrick Jr. wanted to die. Now he doesn't. Deborah Yaffe of The Recorder tells the story of a man who maintains his innocence, even after having admitted his guilt in a letter to the Supreme Court.
- Disparate Justice Imperils a Community
Marc Mauer, assistant director of The Sentencing Project in Washington, DC, examines racial disparity in our criminal justice system.
- Prosecutor's Discretion: Opting Against Death - Analysis
Is it ethical for prosecutors to adopt a general policy against the death penalty? Hofstra University Legal Ethics Professor Monroe Freedman tackles the issue.
- Crimes Against the Revolution
Legal Times ' Naftali Bendavid takes a look back at the achievements to date of the 104th Congress, including the criminal justice and death penalty reform initiatives that were a part of much Republican campaign rhetoric in the 1994 election.
- Guilty and Framed
Death row celebrity journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal got an unfair trial before a biased judge. His "confession" was probably fabricated by police, who may have rigged other evidence too. But he is also -- probably -- an unrepentant cop-killer. So what now? Stuart Taylor, Jr. examines the controversial case.
- Probably Innocent, Almost Executed
Stuart Taylor, Jr. maps out the pitfalls of capital punishment, following the path of one "probably innocent" man, currently sitting on death row.
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