In the spring of 2000, a team of lawyers and criminologists headed by Prof. James Liebman released the first phase of their study on the death penalty in the United States. The study showed that the American system of capital punishment was “riddled” with unfairness and incompetence, with serious errors erupting with alarming frequency at every stage of the process. In February of 2002, the second phase was released examining the causes for the frequent mistakes in death penalty cases, and possible solutions to remedy the situation. Researchers identified three main errors that often lead to erroneous convictions: incompetent legal counsel, police officers or prosecutors who suppressed evidence and judges who gave jurors the wrong instructions. The study also suggested that the errors that permeate throughout the system also leave killers at large, exacerbate suffering, waste tax dollars and deprive citizens of the high quality of justice, which they expect and deserve. !

In conclusion, the study found that “the more often officials use the death penalty, the wider the range of crimes to which it is applied, and the more

Capital punishment in the United States has been one of the most controversial issues over the past two and a half decades. Currently, 38 states enact capital punishment in response to the most “heinous of crimes”. In previous years, the American public based their views strictly on the deterrent effects and cost effectiveness of the death penalty. Public opinion on capital punishment in America over the past 50 years has fluctuated tremendously. Support was fairly low through the 1950’s, and in 1966 only 47% of the American public voiced their support. Since 1982, about 75% of the population has favored capital punishment, with a slow decline in recent years (Gillespie 1999). The arguments surrounding the death penalty today, compared to 25 years ago, rely less on issues such as deterrence and cost, and more on grounds of legal fairness and competence, as well as retribution. The public has been misinformed due to the lack of substantial evidence that discredit capital!

With the aid of recent studies and scientific innovations, another prevalent issue that has lead to the decline of pro-death penalty supporters is the ever-increasing number of erroneous convictions in homicide crimes. Since 1970 there have been more than 87 people released from death row in the United States because of false convictions (Newsweek 2000). It was also found that the courts, because of serious errors, reversed 68 % of all death sentences reviewed from 1973 to 1995 (New York Times 2002). It is unconstitutional to continue using the death penalty if we cannot guarantee a fair trial to all individuals, regardless of the “heinous” crimes they may have committed. Unfortunately, the states and counties that most often use the death penalty, applying it to a wide range of crimes instead of reserving it for the “worst of the worst”, are also the most prone to flawed verdicts (Herbert 2002). With such a high rate of error surrounding capital punishment in this co

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