Improving the fairness and accuracy of our criminal justice system.
The ABA Death Penalty Due Process Review Project conducts research and educates the public and decision-makers on the operation of capital jurisdictions’ death penalty laws and processes in order to promote fairness and accuracy in death penalty systems.
Our Mental Illness Initiative works to educate legal professionals, policy makers, and the public on the subject of severe mental illness and the death penalty and to support policy reform efforts to exempt individuals with severe mental illness from the death penalty.
From 2003 to 2013, the Project conducted a series of comprehensive assessments on the administration of capital punishment in twelve U.S. states. The Assessments give jurisdictions an objective instrument to evaluate their death penalty systems based upon uniform benchmarks in varied aspects of capital punishment. In each Assessment, the actual practices of the state are compared to standards set forth in the ABA Protocols on the Administration of Capital Punishment (2001, revised 2010).
The Capital Clemency Resource Initiative (CCRI) is the first project exclusively dedicated to providing actors in the clemency process—attorneys and governmental decision makers alike —the resources and training necessary to ensure a meaningful process and reasoned decision in a capital-clemency case.
Briefs filed by the American Bar Association and Assessment Teams in important death penalty cases.
The Death Penalty Due Process Review Project depends on generous donations from people like you to further our mission. Please make a contribution to support our work improving the fairness and accuracy of our criminal justice system.
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