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Human rights form the foundation of any healthy society. Protection from cruel and inhuman treatment is a constitutional principle that has guided American democracy since its birth. Yet the United States is one of the last industrialized nations to use capital punishment, a practice considered overwhelmingly by today's international community to be cruel and inhuman treatment.
The Tides Foundation Death Penalty Mobilization Fund (DPMF) strategically funds grassroots organizations working for capital punishment abolition and moratoria on executions. Since 2000, the DPMF has offered individuals and institutions a unique opportunity to partner with likeminded donors and activists to impact this crucial yet chronically underfunded issue.
The U.S. government continues to defend its use of capital punishment. But as the mounting evidence of erroneous convictions, incompetent legal representation and the apparent racist bias in the application of the death penalty continues to grab headlines, the nation as a whole has begun to rethink its views on the practice. A June 2006 Gallup Poll found that nationwide support for the death penalty had fallen to 65 percent - the lowest level of support since 1981. Yearly execution rates peaked in 1999 with 98 executions but dropped to 59 in 2004 because of doubts triggered by DNA evidence.
Many legislators throughout the country and across party lines have also raised concerns about the fairness of the practice.
In June 2006, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that death row inmates seeking to challenge lethal injection as a method of execution after they have exhausted their regular appeals may pursue the issue as a civil rights claim.
The 2005 Supreme Court declaration of juvenile capital punishment as unconstitutional was a major landmark, and brought the American justice system more in line with international standards.
In 2002, the Supreme Court banned the execution of mentally retarded defendants. This ruling reflects the Court’s growing concern over the use of the death penalty, and its acknowledgement of growing sentiments against it. It also overturned the death sentences of at least 150 people on death row who were sentenced to death by judges, not juries, based on the fact that such sentences violate a defendant's constitutional right to a trial by jury.
In May, 2002, Maryland Governor Parris Glendening declared a moratorium on executions in his state based on concerns about possible racial bias in how the death penalty has been applied. In addition, moratorium legislation is now pending in at least nine other states, and more than 70 cities across the country have passed resolutions supporting moratoria on capital punishment.
In March 2002, the state of Illinois announced it would review the cases of over 160 death row inmates and consider commuting their sentences. This move was a dramatic follow-up by traditionally conservative Governor George H. Ryan to the moratorium on Illinois executions that he declared in 2000.
These and other events have created national momentum for death penalty abolition and execution moratoria. Yet this issue continues to be politically difficult for many grantmaking institutions, and funding for grassroots groups working against capital punishment remains exceedingly rare.
