The Death of Death Row Clemency and the Evolving Politics of Unequal Grace

2014; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

10.2139/ssrn.2437512

ISSN

1556-5068

Autores

Michael Heise,

Tópico(s)

American Constitutional Law and Politics

Resumo

While America’s appetite for capital punishment continues to wane over time, clemency for death row inmates is all but extinct. Moreover, what little clemency activity that persists continues to distribute unevenly across gender, racial and ethnic groups, geography, governors’ political affiliation, and over time. Insofar as courts appear extremely reluctant to review – let alone interfere with – clemency activity, little, if any, formal legal recourse exists. Results from this study of clemency activity on state death rows (1973-2010) suggest that potential problems arise, however, to the extent that our criminal justice system relies on clemency to function as coherent extrajudicial check.

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