The 323-page report found seven flaws in Georgia's administration of the death penalty.
For example, Georgia is the only state in the nation that does not guarantee lawyers for death row inmates' habeas corpus appeals, which challenge the constitutionality of convictions and sentences and sometimes result in new trials, the report found.
And, of the 26 states that prohibit executing the mentally retarded, the report says Georgia has the toughest standards for proving a defendant is retarded.
"The purpose of this (study) is to move the system forward so that it's more capable of providing evenhanded justice on a consistent basis," said Anne Emanuel, associate dean of the Georgia State University law school and chair of the study.
The report was prepared by 10 prominent Georgia lawyers and political figures - including attorney Doug Stewart of Gainesville. All 10 members of the assessment team, except Donnie Dixon, a former U.S. attorney in Savannah, recommended the moratorium.
Dixon said Saturday he supported many of the report's findings but felt most death penalty cases had been handled properly.
State officials also do not agree with a moratorium.
Asked if Gov. Sonny Perdue would consider a moratorium, his spokesman, Dan McLagan, said simply: "Nope."
Attorney General Thurbert Baker, through a spokesman, said he does not agree with the call for a moratorium.
The report also found that race remains a factor in convictions, with convicted murderers of white victims much more likely to receive a death sentence than those with black victims.
Citing surveys, the report also says too many jurors misunderstand a judge's instructions about what evidence they can consider when deciding on the death penalty.
"Death sentences resulting from juror confusion or mistake are not tolerable," the report said.
Harold Clarke, retired Georgia Supreme Court chief justice and a member of the American Bar Association study team, supports a moratorium.
"There are too many instances _ and one's too many _ where folks are convicted and turn out not to be guilty," Clarke said, "and then there are some more that we probably never know about."
But prosecutors argue that existing safeguards are adequate. They note there is no known instance of an innocent person being executed in Georgia.
"Georgia is very careful and very deliberate in its imposition of the death penalty," said Dougherty County District Attorney Ken Hodges, vice chairman of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia. "The defendant in a capital case is given every right afforded him or her under the U.S. and Georgia constitutions. They get a heck of a lot more constitutional protections than the victims, who are heinously, brutally raped and murdered."
Hodges cited the case of William Marvin Gulley, who killed an 81-year-old Albany woman and raped her 60-year-old daughter. The state Supreme Court overturned Gulley's death sentence last summer after finding his lawyers failed to show jurors that Gulley saved the lives of two people in 1992.
"The system worked," Hodges said.
He said he later agreed to a sentence of life without parole for Gulley because the victims' family did not want another trial.
One woman and more than 100 men currently reside on Georgia's death row.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/1/117062