The individual state assessments consisted in large part of reviewing and analyzing each state's laws and processes affecting death penalty administration. The Project conducted eight assessments, in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. The assessments culminated with a national "wrap-up" event to review the assessment findings on October 29, 2007.

Each state's assessment was conducted by an on-the-ground Assessment Team, comprised of and/or with access to a law school professor, a current or former defense attorney, a current or former prosecutor, a state bar representative, a current or former judge, a state legislator, and anyone else whom the Project felt necessary.

The teams were responsible for collecting and analyzing various laws, rules, procedures, standards, and guidelines relating to the administration of the death penalty. In an effort to guide the teams with the assessments, the Project translated the Protocols into an Assessment Guide detailing the data to be collected and identifying ways to analyze the data. The Assessment Guide includes sections on the following:

• (1) death row demographics, DNA testing, and the location of information
• (2) evolution of the state death penalty statute
• (3) law enforcement tools and techniques
• (4) crime laboratories and medical examiners
• (5) prosecutors
• (6) defense services during trial, appeal, and state post-conviction proceedings
• (7) direct appeal and the unitary appeal process
• (8) state post-conviction relief proceedings and federal habeas corpus
• (9) clemency
• (10) jury instructions
• (11) judicial independence
• (12) racial and ethnic minorities
• (13) mentally retarded and mentally ill offenders.

In February 2003, the Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project was selected to receive a two-year grant from the European Commission's European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights ("E.C.") to conduct preliminary assessments of a number of states' death penalty systems analyzing the extent to which these systems comport with minimum standards of fairness and due process. Read more about the grant

The Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project created a National Advisory Board to oversee grant implementation. The Advisory Board is comprised of the following individuals:

• Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte, Professor of Law and former Dean, Florida State University, and former ABA president
• Fred Gray, partner at Gray, Langford, Sapp, McGowan, Gray & Nathanson and former attorney for Rosa Parks and Martin King Jr.
• John J. Gibbons, partner at Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Grigginger & Vecchione and former Chief Justice of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals
• Parris Glendenning, President, Smart Growth Leadership Institute and former Maryland Governor; Mario Obledo, President, National Coalition of Hispanic Organizations
• Raymond Paternoster, Professor, Institute of Criminal Justice and Criminology, University of Maryland
• Virginia Sloan, President, The Constitution Project; and Penny Wakefield, former Director, ABA Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities.

At the close of the Assessment Project, the ABA disbanded the National Advisory Board.