Florida Leads the Nation in Death Sentencing Counties in 2012
Posted October 10, 2013 06:10 am
9 counties accounted for 35% of the death sentences in
2012, but are fewer than 1% of the counties in the U.S.
JACKSONVILLE, FL - Not all counties are created equal when it comes to issuing death penalty sentences in Florida, or the rest of the country. According to a new report by the Death Penalty Information Center, Florida leads the nation for the number of death sentences handed down in the last two years, and has the second-largest death row population in the country. Duval, Clay and Nassau Counties top the list, and all are in the 4th Judicial District.
The full report is available here.
Political scientist Frank Baumgartner, a professor at the University of North Carolina, explained why there seems to be a concentration in certain areas.
"The small number of jurisdictions apply the death penalty for some reason, and I think the reason is the development of a local prosecutorial culture," he said.
Since 1976, the report says just four states - Florida, Texas, Virginia, and Oklahoma - have been responsible for almost 60 percent of the country's executions. And nationwide, just 2 percent of counties account for a majority of death row inmates.
Link:
Death Penalty Information Center
Baumgartner said that once a death sentence is handed
down in a county, prosecutors there are more likely to
pursue the punishment in other cases.
"So, when the next really bad one occurs, you think,
'Well, just in terms of fairness, we need to apply it
again in this case.' The counties of the United States
separate out into the users and non-users of the death
penalty, which is very disturbing, when you think about
it," he remarked.
The report says Duval County has the eighth-largest
number of inmates on death row, at 60. Comparatively,
the three cities nationwide with the highest murder
rates in 2012 - Detroit and Flint, Michigan, and New
Orleans - are not even on that top-ten list
Photos/Graphics and links added by the Observer