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General
Statistics about the Death Penalty in the United States
The United States is the only western democracy that continues to use
the death penalty. The U.S. stands with countries like China, Iran,
Iraq, and Pakistan in its continued use of the death penalty. We are third
only to China and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in total number
of executions since 1998.
Innocent people are sentenced to die. Over 111 innocent Americans
have been exonerated from death row in just the last two decades, but
not before losing a total of over 800 years of their lives on death row
for crimes they did not commit.
The death penalty is more expensive than life in prison. Various
state governments estimate that a single death penalty case from arrest
to execution ranges from $1 million up to $7 million. Cases resulting
in life imprisonment average around $500,000 each, including incarceration
cost. State and federal budget deficits ensure civic programs will be
cut in order to finance capital trials.
The death penalty is racially inequitable. Over 82 percent of those
on death row were convicted of killing a white person, though people of
color make up more than 50 percent of all homicide victims in the U.S.
Where is the outrage for their deaths? Do we value people of color less?
Racial disparity is pervasive in this system, additionally evident with
43 percent of death row comprised of black individuals, though only 12
percent of the U.S. population is black.
The United States leads the world in killing kids. The U.S. is
one of only six countries since 1990 that have executed people for crimes
they committed before the age of 18. We have executed more juvenile offenders
than any other country.
The death penalty does not deter crime. States that do not have
the death penalty have an average murder rate that is actually lower than
states that do have the death penalty. In 1995 the police chiefs across
the United States were polled by a bi-partisan polling firm and ask to
rank the ten things that reduce crime - the death penalty was almost unanimously
ranked last.
Overwhelmingly it is poor people who are sentenced to death.
The American Bar Association (ABA) has reported that over 90% of those
on death row could not afford their own attorney at trial and were appointed
counsel. International attention was brought to the United States system
of appointing counsel to indigent defendants last year when a 3 judge
panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that death row inmate
Calvin Burdine did not deserve a new trial even though his attorney slept
through most of the original trial.
The execution of the mentally retarded is still an issue in the U.S.
Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, at least 35 people with
mental retardation have been executed. Because of their mental state,
these men and women cannot understand fully what they did wrong and many
cannot even comprehend the punishment that awaits them. In June 2002,
the Supreme Court decided in Atkins v. Virginia that the execution of
the mentally retarded is a violation of 8th Amendment protections against
cruel and unusual punishment. In making this decision, the court generally
defined mentally retarded as having an IQ below 70 and adaptive behavioral
problems that were identified before the age of 18. The Supreme Court
did not decide how this ruling would affect each state. Instead, individual
states are ordered to make necessary provisions to comply with the ruling.
The exact number of people with this disability who are awaiting execution
is not known; experts believe there may be two or three hundred. Many
states are scrambling to react, and will need to be monitored to ensure
proper compliance with the Court's decision.
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