Since 1976, more than 100 people have been wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in the United States.
The most comprehensive study of capital trials ever conducted found that nearly seven of every 10 death sentences handed down by state courts from 1973 to 1995 were overturned. Most were due to "serious, reversible error," including egregiously incompetent defense counsel, suppression of exculpatory evidence, false confessions, racial manipulation of the jury, “snitch” and accomplice testimony and faulty jury instructions.
The Justice Project Education Fund works to advance state policy reforms aimed at ensuring fairness and accuracy in the administration of capital punishment. Key issues are DNA testing, adequate legal representation and procedural safeguards, such as rules governing police interrogations, eyewitness identification and forensic labs. The education fund closely coordinates its efforts with the related Justice Project, which was founded in 1999 and addresses unfairness and inaccuracy in the American criminal justice system.
Although Pew no longer funds this effort, resource materials produced with our support remain available here.
For more information, visit the Justice Project Education Fund's Web site.
Oct 01, 2007 - Expanded discovery laws requiring timely exchange of all information collected by police and prosecutors in criminal cases could create a more fair and accurate criminal justice system, according to a new policy brief.
Read: Summary View: Full Report (Adobe PDF)
Oct 01, 2007 - A Justice Project Education Fund report on electronic recording of custodial interrogations.
Oct 01, 2007 - A Justice Project Education Fund report on jailhouse snitch testimony.
Oct 01, 2007 - A Justice Project Education Fund report on eyewitness identification.
May 20, 2007 - Fair and just trials, strong and accurate convictions. That’s the aim of a Pew-supported project on the death penalty system. Article by Marc Schogol about the importance of death penalty reform.
Read More
Jan 08, 2007 - The 2007 edition of Stateline.org's annual survey of trends.
Feb 01, 2006 - Article on the Pew Center on the States.
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