| Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project |
| Working to Obtain a Nationwide Moratorium on Executions |
State Assesment Reports
Learn about the Assessment Project, review the key findings and compliance chart, or view information for individual states below:
News and Events
Oct. 29, 2007: Panel Presents Key Findings of the State Assessment Project
- Listen to the press conference and panel discussion
- View the key findings of the Assessment Project final report
- View the national compliance charts
- View MSNBC coverage of Project findings (video)
About the Death Penalty Moratorium
"A system that will take life must first give justice."
-- Former ABA President John J. Curtin, Jr.
The Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project, led by director Deborah Fleischaker, was launched by the American Bar Association (ABA) in September 2001 as the "next step" towards a nationwide moratorium on executions. The Project was created to encourage other bar associations to press for moratoriums in their jurisdictions and to encourage state government leaders to establish moratoriums and undertake detailed examinations of capital punishment laws and processes in their jurisdictions.
Steering Committee
Project Staff
A Brief History
Before Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), there were relatively few U.S. Supreme Court challenges to the constitutionality of capital punishment, and none that dealt squarely with whether the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Read more...
