The death penalty in the United States, both new convictions and executions, has declined through recent decades. In this episode, we explore the history of the death penalty and the various factors that are contributing to this decline.

Death penalty expert and author of End of Its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive Criminal Justice, Brandon Garrett, talks about this history and the revealing details of his data collection on the demise of capital punishment. We are also joined by ALI’s past President Roberta Cooper Ramo and former Judge Christine Durham, who discuss ALI’s removal of the Death Penalty from the Model Penal Code, perhaps one of the earliest indications of the future of capital punishment.

The History of the U.S. Death Penalty

[04:00] ALI and the decision to remove the death penalty from the Model Penal Code

[24:00] Reasons for the death penalty’s decline

[43:00] Race and the death penalty

[46:00] The future of the death penalty