Life Without Parole
States Using Life Without Parole
Years That States Adopted LWOP
LWOP Laws in States That Recently Repealed Death Penalty
Life Without Parole News and Developments - Current Year
Life Without Parole News and Developments - Previous Years
2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003
* Note that "three strikes" laws in some states may make life without parole available for at least some offenders in those states. |
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Serving Life documents an extraordinary hospice program where hardened criminals care for dying fellow inmates. Narrated by executive producer and Academy Award®-winner Forest Whitaker, the film takes viewers inside Louisiana's maximum security prison at Angola, where the average sentence is more than 90 years. Premiered on OWN Thursday, July 28, 2011. Read more here.
Fact Sheet on prison killings from Equal Justice USA
"Death Penalty Not Needed to Prevent Prison Murder," Death Penalty Focus
A. Nellis, "Life Goes On: The Historic Rise in Life Sentences in America," The Sentencing Project (2013).
M. Mauer and K. Epstein, editors, "To Build a Better Criminal Justice System," The Sentencing Project (2012). Features 25 essays on the future of America's criminal justice system, written by academics, advocates, and other experts.
A. Nellis and R. King, No Exit: The Expanding Use of Life Sentences In America, The Sentencing Project (2009). Read a summary by DPIC.
R. Johnson and A. Dobrzanska, "Mature coping among life-sentenced inmates: an exploratory study of adjustment dynamics," Corrections Compendium. (November 2005).
A. Liptak, "To More Inmates, Life Term Means Dying Behind Bars," New York Times, October 2, 2005.
DPIC Summary: The Sentencing Project's Report, "The Meaning of 'Life': Long Prison Sentences in Context" (2004).
Sentencing for Life: Americans Embrace Alternatives to the Death Penalty (DPIC Report 1993).
M. Lane, "Is there life without parole? A capital defendant's right to a meaningful alternative sentence," 26 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 327 (1993).
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From DPIC
Statements from Governors Imposing Moratoria on Executions
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THE MOST LIKELY OUTCOME OF A DEATH SENTENCE ONCE IT IS IMPOSED: THE CONVICTION OR SENTENCE WILL BE OVERTURNED.
(Click image to enlarge) A 2015 study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that the most likely outcome of a capital case once a death sentence was imposed is that the defendant's conviction or sentence would be reversed on appeal and that, ultimately, the defendant would be serving a sentence other thatn death (typically a life sentence). The second most likely situation was the defendant's case remained under appellate review. Execution was only the third most likely outcome. According to Bureau of Justice Statistics data, 8,466 people had been sentenced to death in the United States from 1976-2013. Of those death-sentenced prisoners, 3,194 (38%) had their sentence or conviction overturned. 2,979 (35%) remained on death row at the time of the study. Fewer than 1 in 6 defendants — 1,359 (16%) — had been executed. The rest died on death row of suicide or natural causes, had their sentence commuted, or were removed from death row for miscellaneous or unspecified reasons. The study noted that outcome rates vary dramatically from state to state, with states averaging about a 13% likelihood of carrying out a death sentence. Only one state — Virginia — had executed more than half of those it had sentenced to death. The authors of the study wrote: "Regardless of one’s view of the death penalty in principle, these numbers raise questions about how the death penalty is applied in practice. The wide differences across states in the odds of carrying out a death sentence are potentially troubling from an equal protection standpoint." They conclude, "A system that ensures prolonged court time, automatic appeals for the convicted inmate – most of whom are eventually successful – and only a small chance of actual execution is a system built on false promises for everyone, and indeed one that seems to verge on torture." Source: Frank R. Baumgartner and Anna W. Dietrich, Monkey Cage: Most death penalty sentences are overturned. Here’s why that matters., The Washington Post, March 17, 2015. |
