| Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project |
| Working to Obtain a Nationwide Moratorium on Executions |
Description of European Commission Grant
In February 2003, the ABA Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project was selected to receive a substantial two-year grant from the European Commission's European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights ("EC") to examine the extent to which U.S. capital jurisdictions' death penalty systems comport with minimum standards of fairness and due process.
The grant is one of only 10 death penalty-related grants that the EC awarded worldwide, and one of only two in the United States. The award attests to the prestige that the ABA has earned in the eyes of the international community through its commitment to this issue, and it represents a vote of confidence in the Moratorium Project's capacity to carry out the grant objective.
The objective of the grant is to conduct a preliminary assessment of U.S. death penalty systems, using as a benchmark the protocols set out in the Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities' 2001 publication, Death without Justice: A Guide for Examining the Administration of the Death Penalty in the United States ("Protocols"). While the Protocols are not intended to cover exhaustively all aspects of the death penalty, they do cover eight key aspects of death penalty administration, including defense services, procedural restrictions and limitations on state post-conviction and federal habeas corpus, clemency proceedings, jury instructions, an independent judiciary, racial and ethnic minorities, juvenile offenders, and the mentally retarded and mentally ill.
The findings of the preliminary assessments will serve as the bases from which to launch the more comprehensive self-examinations of death penalty-related laws and processes that the ABA is encouraging capital jurisdictions to undertake on their own. Although some have conducted limited reviews or studies, only Illinois has conducted the type of review that the ABA has concluded is essential to identify and address core problems in death penalty laws and processes.
