Directory of Death Penalty News Reports from Free-Market. The risk of executing innocent people has created a new groundswell of anxiety among reformers, who are urging more precautions in capital punishment cases.
People including judges, governors and legislators want improved safeguards.
The American Bar Association asked the U.S. Senate to take immediate steps to prevent innocent people from being executed. The association wants Congress to pass legislation guaranteeing death row inmates the right to DNA tests to possibly prove their innocence. Both female justices on the U.S. Supreme Court have publicly expressed qualms about the use of the death penalty, leading to predictions that the court is about to embark on a serious reconsideration of capital punishment. United States Executions are down sharply across the country for the second year in a row. There have been dramatic declines in the leading death penalty states of Virginia and Texas, with the United States on track to execute the fewest inmates since 1996.