Book contents
6 - Accurate Adjudications
Lessons from a Death Penalty State
from Part II - Adjudication
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2025
Summary
Chapter 6 moves further into the postarrest setting, using as a springboard the findings and recommendations of the American Bar Association’s Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Task Force for the state of Florida, which I chaired. At the time of our report, twenty-two people had been released from death row on the ground they had been wrongfully convicted. Relying on an analysis of caselaw, studies, news reports, and interviews, we described the flaws in Florida’s death penalty law and practice that contributed to these injustices. This chapter summarizes and updates the findings of the Task Force in several areas: the analysis of scientific evidence; the conduct of prosecutors; the qualifications, reimbursement, and competence of defense attorneys; the decision-making process of judges; the structure and decision-making process of capital sentencing juries; the clemency process; the system’s reaction to the race of the victim; and the treatment of people with mental disability. This chapter also documents that the failings it recounts – including incompetent forensic labs, prosecutors intent on winning at all costs, underpaid and overwhelmed defense attorneys, juries uncertain about their roles, and judges and governors driven by the next election – afflict many other state systems, in noncapital as well as capital cases. The recommendations of the Task Force, also reported here, would significantly improve the accuracy of criminal adjudications across the country.
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- Rehabilitating Criminal JusticeInnovations in Policing, Adjudication, and Sentencing, pp. 83 - 104Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025