A Different Way to Decide on Capital Cases

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Statewide Capital Punishment: The Case for Eliminating Counties' Role in the Death Penalty

Adam M. Gershowitz
University of Houston Law Center



Vanderbilt Law Review, Vol. 62, 2010
U of Houston Law Center No. 2009-A-19

Abstract:
In almost every state that authorizes capital punishment, local county prosecutors are responsible for deciding when to seek the death penalty and for handling capital trials. This approach has proven to be arbitrary and inefficient. Because death penalty cases are extremely expensive and complicated, counties with large budgets and experienced prosecutors are able to seek the death penalty often. By contrast, smaller counties with limited budgets often lack the funds and institutional knowledge to seek the death penalty in truly heinous cases. The result is geographic arbitrariness. The difference between life and death may depend on the side of the county line where the offense was committed. Furthermore, in some counties, death penalty cases are handled by subpar lawyers. Inadequate lawyering leads to capital cases being reversed for prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel, and inaccurate rulings by trial judges. Following reversal, these capital cases are re-litigated for years at enormous expense. Because county control of death penalty cases has proven to be a failure, this article offers a roadmap for eliminating counties' involvement in the death penalty system. All aspects of capital cases - charging, trial, appeal, and everything in between - can and should be handled at the state level by an elite group of prosecutors, defense lawyers, and judges whose sole responsibility is to deal with capital cases. This article details how an elite statewide death penalty unit could be created and how it could minimize the geographic arbitrariness of the death penalty while simultaneously reducing the costs of handling death penalty cases.

Keywords: death penalty, capital punishment, arbitrariness, geography, county, counties

Accepted Paper Series

Date posted: August 20, 2009 ; Last revised: August 25, 2009

Suggested Citation

Gershowitz, Adam M.,Statewide Capital Punishment: The Case for Eliminating Counties' Role in the Death Penalty(August 19, 2009). Vanderbilt Law Review, Vol. 62, 2010; U of Houston Law Center No. 2009-A-19. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1457715