GEORGIA CANNOT ENSURE FAIRNESS, ACCURACY
IN DEATH PENALTY CASES, SAYS STATE LEGAL TEAM IN ABA PROJECT

CHICAGO, Jan. 30, 2006 -- A team of experts from Georgia’s legal community concludes that Georgia cannot ensure fairness and accuracy in every capital case. A majority of the state team therefore recommends that Georgia impose a moratorium on both executions and death penalty prosecutions until it can do so.

The study has not been presented to the American Bar Association House of Delegates and does not constitute ABA policy. The ABA neither supports nor opposes the death penalty. The ABA’s policy urges a moratorium on executions until fairness and due process are assured in death penalty cases.

"This conclusion, reached by leaders of Georgia’s legal community, underscores the grave risk of injustice and the need for a comprehensive evaluation of Georgia’s death penalty system, and the implementation of all necessary reforms," said Michael S. Greco, president of the ABA, which sponsored the state assessment released today. The study was conducted under the Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project of the ABA Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities.

Areas the team identified as in great need of reform include inadequate funding for defense counsel, failure to provide defense counsel in state habeas proceedings, lack of meaningful review of proportionality of sentences, inadequate pattern jury instructions addressing mitigation, continued existence of racial disparities in capital sentencing, and the unreasonably strict "beyond a reasonable doubt" burden of proof required to prove mental retardation.

The Georgia team also is urging the state to sponsor a comprehensive study to determine whether its death penalty system has unacceptable disparities related to race, geography or other factors; to establish a statewide clearinghouse to review all decisions to seek the death penalty for proportionality and disparities; and to restrict death sentences to cases where the defendant is found guilty of intentional murder or murder committed with a reckless disregard for human life.

"Our criminal justice system can never be fail-safe, but it can and must be better at protecting our fundamental commitment to fairness and accuracy in capital sentencing. This research indicates that we are far from meeting this commitment," said Anne S. Emanuel, associate dean for academic affairs at Georgia State University College of Law, chair of the Georgia team.

The team’s proposals were made in addition to 74 specific recommendations by the ABA project. The 74 recommendations are based on ABA policy and protocols developed by the ABA section.

The team found that the state fully complies with five of the ABA’s recommendations, partially complies with 23, and fails to comply with 24. There was insufficient information available for the assessment team to determine compliance with 26 protocols, and two of the protocols were inapplicable in the state.

The full report and executive summary, including charts that identify specific recommendations and state compliance levels, are available on the ABA’s Web site at www.abavideonews.org/ABA340.

Additional information about the Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project and the assessment project also is posted there.

"We are not unanimous on every recommendation, but despite our diverse backgrounds and perspectives, we all agree that implementing these recommendations would significantly enhance the accuracy and fairness of Georgia's capital punishment system" Emanuel said. Recommendations specifically identified as those of the Georgia assessment team that do not reflect current ABA policy do not constitute ABA policy.

Georgia is the first of 16 states being assessed under the ABA Project, which developed the protocols in 2001. Other assessments are being conducted in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. Neither the protocols nor individual state assessment reports have been adopted by the ABA House of Delegates, and are not themselves ABA policy. [Editors Note:  The list of states being assessed has been revised, and now includes, at minimum, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia.]

These state assessments analyze the extent to which state systems comport with minimum standards of fairness and due process. Assessments are conducted by state-based teams composed of current or former judges, legislators, prosecutors, defense lawyers, bar association leaders, law school professors and others. Among the 38 death penalty jurisdictions in the U.S., only Illinois and New Jersey currently have moratoriums on executions. The assessment states were selected for a variety of reasons, including regional, racial, and socio-economic diversity, the size of the state’s death row,

and the number of previously identified problems in death penalty administration.

"Assessments being conducted under this project are not a substitute for more comprehensive reviews that would result from greater access to state records, systems and other resources," said James E. Coleman Jr., chair of the ABA project and professor at Duke University School of Law.

Although the ABA neither supports nor opposes the death penalty, in 1997 the association called on death penalty jurisdictions to cease executions until they conduct detailed studies of whether their capital punishment systems are fair, provide due process and are free of discrimination, and make necessary reforms.

The Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project was launched in September 2001 and collects and monitors data on death penalty issues; works with bar associations to address death penalty issues; encourages use of the protocols as a guide for states in to formulate their death penalty reviews; uses the protocols to assess capital jurisdictions’ death penalty systems; and analyzes governmental and judicial responses to death penalty administration issues. 

The project also works for a nationwide moratorium on executions, encourages other bar associations to press for moratoriums in their jurisdictions, and encourages state government leaders to declare moratoriums and undertake detailed examinations of capital punishment laws and processes.  The project is overseen by a steering committee composed of former prosecutors, defense lawyers, former judges, and other lawyers – both for and against the death penalty – who support a nationwide moratorium.

With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law in a democratic society.

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