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III. Confirmation from a Parallel Study
Results from a parallel study by the U.S. Department of Justice suggest that our 32%, or one-in-three, figure for valid death sentences actually overstates the chance of execution:
- Included in the Justice Department study is a report of the outcome as of the end of
1998 of the 263 death sentences imposed in 1989.66 A final disposition of only 103 of the 263
death sentences had been reached nine years later.67 Of those 103, 78 (76%) had been overturned
by a state or federal court. Only 13 death sentences had been carried out.68 So, for every
one member of the death row class of 1989 whose case was finally reviewed and who was
executed as of 1998, six members of the class had their cases overturned in the courts.
- Because of the intensive review needed to catch so much error, 160 (61%) of the 263
death sentences imposed in 1989 were still under scrutiny nine years later.69
- The approximately 3,600 people on death row
today have been waiting an average of 7.4 years for a final declaration that their capital
verdict is error-free-or, far more probably, that it has to be scrapped because of serious
error.70
- Of the approximately 6,700 people sentenced to die between 1973 and 1999, only 598-less
than one in eleven-were executed.71 About four times as many had their capital judgments
overturned or gained clemency.72
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