Digital Learning Commons: Just Mercy: Death penalty

Articles and Resources

10 Facts about the Death Penalty in the U.S.
As debates over the death penalty continue in the U.S., here’s a closer look at public opinion on the issue, as well as key facts about the nation’s use of capital punishment.
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Gramlich, John. “10 Facts about the Death Penalty in the U.S.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 19 July 2021, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/07/19/10-facts-about-the-death-penalty-in-the-u-s/.
Death Penalty
The question we need to ask about the death penalty in America is not whether someone deserves to die for a crime. The question is whether we deserve to kill.
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Equal Justice Initiative. “Death Penalty.” Equal Justice Initiative, 2019, eji.org/issues/death-penalty/.
America’s death penalty divide: why capital punishment is getting better, and worse
This year the US saw the fewest executions since 1988, but those states sticking with judicial killings are displaying grotesque aberrations.
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Pilkington, Ed. “America’s Death Penalty Divide: Why Capital Punishment Is Getting Better, and Worse.” The Guardian, 16 Dec. 2021, www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/15/us-death-penalty-abolish-executions.
The decline and fall of the American death penalty
The number of death sentences and executions in the US has fallen off a cliff since the 1990s. 2020 continued that trend.
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Millhiser, Ian. “The Decline and Fall of the American Death Penalty.” Vox, 30 Dec. 2020, www.vox.com/2020/12/30/22187578/death-penalty-united-states-executions-decline-gregg-georgia-bucklew-precythe.
ACLU Case Agains the Death Penalty
The American Civil Liberties Union believes the death penalty inherently violates the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment and the guarantees of due process of law and of equal protection under the law.
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Bedau, Hugo. “The Case against the Death Penalty.” American Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union, 2012, www.aclu.org/other/case-against-death-penalty.
State By State Death Penalty Information
The Death Penalty Information Center provides essential statistics like execution numbers, death row population, and murder rates for each state. We also provide historical background on the death penalty in each state, including abolitionist states. Each state page also links to relevant websites, such as state legislatures, groups doing death penalty work, and Departments of Corrections.

Organizations

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty’s mission is to abolish the death penalty in the United States and support efforts to abolish the death penalty worldwide.
Death Penalty Information Center
A national non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment.

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