USA - New ABA Report on Criminal Justice and the Death Penalty

New ABA Report on Criminal Justice and the Death Penalty. The American Bar Association recently released its annual report, “The State of Criminal Justice-2013”, including a chapter on developments in capital punishment in the United States. In that chapter, author Ronald Tabak focuses on the continuing decline in death sentences and executions, recent innocence cases, and new voices who have spoken out about the death penalty. The chapter highlights recent research on capital punishment, including studies that found racial disparities in death sentences in the federal and military death penalty systems. The report also discusses relevant cases from the U.S. Supreme Court, including Maples v. Thomas and Martinez v. Ryan, dealing with proper representation in capital cases. Tabak concludes that as the problems surrounding the death penalty continue to grow, its elimination "deserves serious consideration."