Law Commons^™

John Donohue, When Social Sciences Save Lives, John J. Donohue

John Donohue

If you think academic work can’t be “emotionally draining”, meet John Donohue, the C. Wendell and Edith M. Carlsmith Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, who’s teaching law and economics at Bocconi as a short-term visiting professor. In the last six years his academic interests led him to the death rows of Connecticut prisons and his work is the main piece of evidence in a trial which will decide the fate of five inmates sentenced to death and perhaps of six more.

When Will America Wake Up To Gun Violence?, John J. Donohue

John Donohue

Last night's shooting rampage at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, was a nightmare. Authorities have

already arrested a suspect. Four weapons were recovered in the shooting scene, including a shotgun and two

handguns. Twelve people have been killed, with many more injured. According to law enforcement officials, the

weapons were purchased legally by the suspect in the last six months.

The shooting was senseless. And it makes us think once again about how we can address the horrific problem of

gun violence in America.

Time To Kill The Death Penalty, John J. Donohue

John Donohue

Forty years ago this week, the U.S. Supreme Court in Furman v. Georgia struck down the death penalty on the ground that it was applied in an arbitrary manner. Four years later, the Supreme Court accepted the constitutionality of “new and improved” death penalty statutes that were supposed to eliminate the defects condemned in Furman. In bringing back the death penalty in 1976, the Court also cited studies suggesting that executions save lives.

Four decades later, there is plenty of evidence that the death penalty continues to be applied in an unfair manner and not a shred of evidence that …

Study Shows Scales Of Justice Askew When It Comes To Death Penalty, John J. Donohue

John Donohue

A former Yale Law School professor's long-running study now concludes that while extremely rare, the death penalty is a largely random punishment that often hangs on the accused's race and where in Connecticut the crime took place. John Donohue, now at Stanford University, looked at the application of the death penalty between 1973 and 2007, examining and rating 205 cases during a period when 4,686 murders occurred in the state.

The Random Horror Of The Death Penalty, Ny Times Editorial Board

John Donohue

The Supreme Court has not banned capital punishment, as it should, but it has long held that the death penalty is unconstitutional if randomly imposed on a handful of people. An important new study based on capital cases in Connecticut provides powerful evidence that death sentences are haphazardly meted out, with virtually no connection to the heinousness of the crime.