For the past decade, the Constitution Project's Death Penalty Committee has worked to combat the deeply disturbing risk that Americans are being wrongfully convicted of capital crimes and wrongfully sentenced to death. The Committee has examined our country's criminal justice systems and developed recommendations to ensure that fundamental fairness is guaranteed for all. 

The Committee's members are supporters and opponents of the death penalty, Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals.  They are former judges, prosecutors, and other public officials, as well as victim advocates, defense lawyers, journalists, scholars, and other concerned Americans.  They have extensive and varied experience in the criminal justice system. 

Committee members may disagree on much, including whether to abolish the death penalty, but they are united in their profound concern that procedural safeguards are deeply flawed and assurances of fundamental fairness are lacking in the current administration of capital punishment. They all agree that individuals who commit violent crimes deserve swift and certain punishment. They also agree that no one should be denied the basic constitutional protections designed to prevent wrongful convictions and sentence, including a competent lawyer, a fair trial, and a meaningful opportunity for full judicial review.