A step forward?

Section 210.6 of the American Law Institute's Model Penal Code set the intellectual framework for the capital justice system in the United States. Now, citing Supreme Court decisions that have reshaped the landscape and concerns about the administration of the death penalty, ALI has voted to withdraw Section 210.6 altogether.

A study commissioned by the institute said that decades of experience had proved that the system could not reconcile the twin goals of individualized decisions about who should be executed and systemic fairness. It added that capital punishment was plagued by racial disparities; was enormously expensive even as many defense lawyers were underpaid and some were incompetent; risked executing innocent people; and was undermined by the politics that come with judicial elections.

The ALI agreed not to take a position on whether the death penalty should be abolished.

The full ALI report on the death penalty issue, which is surprisingly readable even for non-lawyers, is here.