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A Broken System, Part II: Why There Is So Much Error in Capital Cases, and What Can Be Done About It

Factors that contribute to the excessive mistakes found in capital cases and policy options available to engage these grievous capital errors are discussed. Chapters address: rising doubts about the administration of the death penalty; the importance of studying the causes of reversible error in death cases; research questions, methods, data sources, and format for reporting results; state-level factors related to serious, reversible error in capital trials and verdicts -- aggressive use of the death penalty, ineffective law enforcement, politics, and race; the role of county-level conditions as explanations for serious capital error; results of a case-study of factors related to federal habeas reversal -- weak case for death, low quality state court procedures, high quality federal lawyer, and politics; summary and interpretation of results -- the strongest predictor of serious capital error is aggressive use of the death penalty, extending to weakly aggravated homicides, in response to political, race-related, and law-enforcement-related fears and pressures; and policy options. Appendixes contain: national and state capital punishment report cards; county tables; and capital judgments reversed on state post-conviction or related types of review. While this document is just the executive summary, user's guide, and table of contents from the report, the entire report and appendixes can be obtained at the URLs noted below. Accession Number: 017497

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