Bar Association Seeks to Halt Executions

After a three-year study of the death penalty in eight states, the American Bar Association is calling for a nationwide moratorium on executions until prevalent problems in the system are rectified. Defense attorneys nationwide are under-qualified and underfunded, cases are plagued by sloppy evidence gathering, and race influences sentencing, the organization concluded.

"After carefully studying the way states across the spectrum handle executions, it has become crystal clear that the process is deeply flawed," said the chairman of the ABA's Death Penalty Moratorium Project. A spokesman for the National District Attorneys Association said the ABA is only pretending to be neutral on the issue and that leaders want the death penalty abolished. (More death penalty stories.)