YORK: Racial bias, incompetent law enforcement and political pressure on judges are key factors behind a "serious" error rate in the US's death penalty system, according to a new study. "Heavy and indiscriminate use" of capital punishment in some states, such as Texas and Florida, magnifies the problem and increases the risk of innocent people being sentenced to death.
"The time has come to fix the death penalty or end it," concludes the study, A Broken System by researchers at New York's Columbia University. "There is growing awareness that serious, reversible error permeates the system, putting innocent lives at risk, heightening the suffering of victims, leaving killers at large, wasting tax dollars and failing citizens and the justice system." The study is the second part of a landmark examination of US death penalty cases from 1973 to 1995. The first instalment, released in June 2000, found courts reversed 68 per cent of death verdicts. The report claims the incompetence of defence lawyers, misconduct of police and prosecutors and bias of jurors and judges accounted for 76 per cent of the reversals. In 82 per cent of cases, the defendant did not receive the death sentence at retrial, including 9 per cent who were exonerated. Since 1975, 99 inmates have been freed from death row. The study finds high reversal rates in areas where the homicide risk for whites is higher than for blacks and in jurisdictions where local authorities have poor crime-fighting records. Further, "the more often and directly state trial judges are subject to popular election, and the more partisan those elections are, the higher the state's rate of error". The study also finds significant discrepancies within states. In Lexington County, South Carolina, the death sentence was imposed 93 times per 1000 homicides. In Richland County, a few kilometres away, the rate was 9 per 1000. "The capital system is collapsing under the weight of error and the risk of executing the innocent is high," research leader James Liebman said. Professor Liebman opposes capital punishment and critics charge the study is skewed to reflect his views. They say the fact errors are detected and sentences reversed shows the system is not "broken".
