JURIST - Paper Chase: ABA recommends Georgia death penalty moratorium

[JURIST] The American Bar Association [official website] has recommended a moratorium on the Georgia death penalty after an ABA panel study [ABA materials] identified numerous flaws in the state criminal justice system that it claimed greatly compromised the fair administration of capital punishment. The Georgia Death Penalty Assessment Report [DOC] noted that Georgia is the only state that does not guarantee lawyers to death row inmates at every stage of their appeals process, that state requirements to prove that a defendant is mentally retarded and therefore ineligible for execution are the toughest in the nation, and that research shows race plays a key role in a defendant's likelihood to receive the death penalty. Earlier this month, New Jersey imposed a temporary moratorium on the death penalty [JURIST report] after the state legislature found alarming flaws in its system [JURIST report]. AP has more.

For a one-stop snapshot of the latest legal news that matters, with breaking documents, new legal videos, live law-related webcasts, commentary by expert law professors and more - all updated through the day in real time, with no ads and no registration barriers - visit JURIST's homepage and check back often...