Criminal Justice Policies

Jordyn Hoff PAF 200

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Worldwide Initiative to End The Death Penalty

I wanted my final post to be something that I had not covered before. The Death penalty is not just a domestic policy; it is all over the world. The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty is an organization that works to end the punishment globally. This organization was initiated and organized by the French NGO Together Against the Death Penalty in 2002. Member organizations meet up once a year to strategize and further their work. This is a very complex and organized process. They elect leaders to be representatives for committees. It is financed mainly by donors and members but doe look for outside sources. It seems like a very progressive and successful organization.

Website: http://www.worldcoalition.org/

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Funding

Since Death Penalty organizations do not use social media presence as much as other civil rights organizations, they rely heavily on grants and sponsorships. For example, The Atlantic Philanthropist (a nonprofit well known for its anti-death penalty movement) get most of its funding from partnerships. They have funding partners: 8th Amendment Project, Equal Justice USA, Southern Center for Human Rights, and Texas defender Service. They also have co-funders such as the Themis Fund, Butler Family Fund, Fund for Nonviolence, Wallace Global Fund, and The Open Society Foundations. As you can see, they have no shortage of support and funds for their mission. As this issue continues to grow, the more support hier gain.

Check out their site: https://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/subtheme/death-penalty#grantmaking

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Social Movements Relating to the Death Penalty

This policy affects many areas of social organization, from racism, religion, and more. It was tough to find social movements or a larger scale for this policy (unlike BLM or Me Too), but there were very local gatherings/rallies relating to the death penalty in certain states. For example, it looks as if there will be “the 22nd Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty” and will take place Saturday, October 30, 2021, in Austin, Texas. It looks as if these marches have taken place for a while and are mainly built out of Texas. This is just one example of many grassroots movements put on by communities. In my previous post, I mentioned how the GFADP puts on vigils for those executed in Georgia.

Links: http://marchforabolition.org/

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Grassroot Organizations

Social change organizations are vital to the abolition of the death penalty around the country. Since only certain states still have the death penalty, they are crucial to this policy. Other areas may not rely on grassroots organizations as much, but all this policy depends on regrading statewide executions. The Georgians For Alternatives to the Death Penalty (GFADP) is a statewide 501(c)(3) Nonprofit organization that works to protect the rights of those on death row and to change Georgia’s broken public safety system. They have helped spread awareness of the alternatives to the death penalty and wrongful convictions in the system. They even hold vigils in protest for those who are put to death.

Check them out here: https://www.gfadp.org/home

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Political Action Committees (PACs)

A Political Action Committee is a political committee organized to raise and spend money to elect and defeat a candidate. When looking for PACs in the Death Penalty policy area, I found The Real Justice PAC. Their goal is to “elect prosecutors who will fix our broken criminal justice system.” More specifically, this organization tried to petition federal executions when former Attorney General Bill Barr restarted them. This is an example of how they do have a political bias when making decisions for their organizations.

Link to petition: https://act.realjusticepac.org/sign/ads-barr-death-penalty/?

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Organizations Encouraging Voting

The Innocence Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps exonerate wrongfully convicted inmates; they are most noted for their work on Death row. Since this organization cannot take political sides, they encourage voting in general by showing former inmates voting-a lot voting for the first time. Posts and encouragement like this allow organizations to promote their policy goals without providing political bias. In this case, it is very telling; most of these inmates have been incarcerated for a majority of their lives and unable to vote.

Look at the posts here: https://innocenceproject.org/survivors-of-wrongful-conviction-vote-in-midterms/

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Volunteers in Anti-Death Penalty Nonprofits

The nonprofit's volunteer work I will be examining is from The Center for Death Penalty Litigation (CDPL). The mission for CDPL is to represent people on death row and coordinates capital litigation across North Carolina. Their volunteer work would be considered formal and regular volunteering. On the page, you can see that their volunteering opportunities rely heavily on a schedule. It gets volunteers involved in "writing, investigation, document review, policy work, client interaction, and other tasks suited to volunteers' skills and talents." This requires a rigorous time commitment and the ability to work with projects.

Link to volunteer page: https://www.cdpl.org/work-with-us/volunteers/

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Nonprofits That Support Death Penalty Reform

As per my last post, I mentioned I could not find any pro-death penalty organizations. Since then, I discovered that there are nonprofits that want to help improve the system but NOT abolish the death penalty. Texas Defender Service is one of those nonprofits. Its mission is to "establish a fair and just criminal justice system in Texas" by providing fair representation and fixing the capital punishment process’s flaws. One program they run is the Capital Trial Project, which "helps train, consult, and provide trial teams with litigation support." This program has been very successful at reducing capital punishment cases in Texas. They have a very impressive record in their short history, such as taking six cases to the U.S. Supreme Court and winning them all.

Link to site: https://www.texasdefender.org/

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Different Types of Anti-Death Penalty Nonprofits

This post's goal was to find a 501(c)(3) registered organization that is a pro-death penalty. But from my research, I could not find any. What I did find was a wide variety of anti-death penalty organizations. There are so many different backgrounds and missions that all fight for the same cause. For example, an organization called People of Faith Against the Death Penalty focuses on how religious beliefs tie into abolishing the death penalty. Then some organizations focus on fair representation to defendants and prisoners on death row, like the Equal Justice Initiative. There is also the assumption that all conservatives support this policy, but Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty destroys that narrative.

Link to nonprofits talked about and more: http://executinggrace.com/orgs

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Dissecting A Nonprofit

What makes a nonprofit a national organization is its mission, goals, and values of the organization. I took a look at an Arizona-based nonprofit called Arizona Capital Representation Project to see if I could identify these three items on their site.

Mission: They make their mission very clear on their front page and even in one sentence. They state that “The sole mission of the Arizona Capital Representation Project is to improve the quality of representation afforded to capital defendants in Arizona.”

Goals: They make their goals very clear, similar to their mission statement. They focus on adequate representation to those facing the death penalty in Arizona. They also want to provide consulting services, training, and education to the community.

Values: This is the only item that was not too clear. Often on pages, there is a “values” tab that you can go to. The ACRP does not have that. They do not state anywhere why they are doing what they do. They do not state an apparent problem they are trying to solve.

Link to the site: https://azcapitalproject.org/

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Nonprofits that have affected the political system

Nonprofits have had a massive role in overturning the death penalty in states. One example is the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, a nonprofit that looks to end the death penalty in states and even worldwide. The NCADP has pieces of training and conferences to teach people how to campaign for their cause. This includes communication to officials through letter writing and phone calls. They also work on training to educate communities nationwide, which is a significant step to getting political leaders' attention.

Link to site: https://www.guidestar.org/profile/23-2290483#mission

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The Innocence Project

The Innocence Project is a nonprofit that works to enumerate individuals who have been wrongfully accused. They do this mainly through DNA testing and criminal reform. This nonprofit has found about 18 people on death row innocent of their alleged crimes. The nonprofit has a very clear mission statement, "The Innocence Project's mission is to free the staggering number of innocent people who remain incarcerated, and to bring reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment". They rely on volunteers, petitions, and donations to keep their mission alive.

The Innocence Project’s work on the Death Penalty: https://innocenceproject.org/the-innocent-and-the-death-penalty/

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Bottom Up or Top Down?

The modern application of capital punishment fits best with the top-down approach. The federal death penalty is valid anywhere in the United States; it does not matter if the state has the death penalty or not. This implies that only the national government can deliver the penalty and ignores the difference of state law. This also fits top-down because it has a clear goal and policy tools. It could be argued that capital punishment has too many goals. For example, bring justice to victims, reduce costs, and prevent further crimes.

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Why Policies Fail.

There are many factors on why policies do not succeed, and many fit with the death penalty. I want to focus on the boundary question, which focuses on state, local, and federal boundaries and how they interact with policies. The death penalty can be changed in every state and enacted at the federal level at any time. Some states still enact the death penalty, have abolished it, or governor imposed. Federally, the president can choose to carry out executions, and before Trump, none had taken place after 2003. These boundary conflict leads this policy to be still debated federally, ultimately leading to its failure.

Reference: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-by-state

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Outputs vs Outcomes of the Death Penalty

When analyzing the death penalty, there are several long-term (outcomes) and short terms goals (outputs) for this policy. The long-term goal is to prevent murders and achieve justice. These factors can prove this policy's effectiveness, even if it can take years, or even the convicts' life, to be put to death. In my other posts, I have already written briefly about these goals. Looking more at the short-term goal, a big one is to save money. However, this goal is also heavily debated. Sometimes the death penalty can be cost-effective depending on how long the person is on death row (often a long time). If they are on a shorter time, it could be cost-effective.

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Capital Punishments Casual Theory

A causal theory understands what causes a problem and how to solve it; it is crucial when making individual policies. When looking at the death penalty, the main objective is to punish and prevent crime. Much research goes into the psychological reasoning behind why people commit murders, and it is still questioned now. According to Pew Research Center, "In 2019, those who are male, younger people, and those who are Black accounted for...shares of perceived offenders in violent incidents...as with all surveys...there are several potential sources of error, including the possibility that crime victims' perceptions are incorrect." Understanding why people commit crimes is very complicated, leading to a flaw in the death penalty causal theory. That may be why this policy is debated so much.

Link to source: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/20/facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/

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Capital Punishment - Policy Type

When examining Capital punishment, I believe it falls under other types of policies, such as procedural policy. The procedural policy definition is, "Include procedures for making, issuing, and enforcing rules." This clearly fits with capital punishment because it helps enforce rules. It is an extreme consequence of your action in hopes of preventing future crime. Although this type of policy is just a procedure, it can still be argued to have its flaws. The way the policy is enforced and is conducted is considered inhumane to some citizens. This is why it is so controversial. There should be another process to stop crime than taking another person's life