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More Evidence on How the Death Penalty Fails as Public Policy

By Michael Blankenship

Nearly 50 years ago, as concern grew in the country about the fairness of death penalty laws, the American Law Institute published a "model statute" aimed at helping state lawmakers draft laws to ensure that death sentences were meted out fairly and consistently. Last fall, the institute withdrew its support for the model death penalty law. The decision was a striking repudiation from the very organization that provided the blueprint for death penalty laws in this country. Read more... In a series of decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court laid the foundation for this collision. The following quote from the article sums up many of the problems facing the administration of capital punishment: "The death penalty cannot balance the need for consistency in sentencing with the need for individualized determinations...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Justice Gambit on February 04, 2010 (boomark / email).