AMERICA’S TOP FIVE DEADLIEST PROSECUTORS

the 1996 high of 315 death verdicts. 15 However, in the increasingly small number of
the counties that still actively sentence people to death, a handful of prosecutors
dominate death-sentencing statistics.
In the final section of this report, we offer a snapshot of three active prosecutors
who, if they continue on their current trajectories, may soon join the ranks of the
deadliest prosecutors in America. Taken together, the profiles featured in this report
demonstrate that the death penalty has been, and continues to be, a personalitydriven
system with very few safeguards against misconduct and frequent abuse of
power, a fact that seriously undermines its legitimacy.
15 Death Sentences By Year: 1976-2014, Death Penalty Info. Ctr., http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-sentences-year-1977-2009
(last visited May 26, 2016).
America’s Top Five Deadliest Prosecutors
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