Group Gives Up Death Penalty Work - January 5, 2010 By Adam Liptak New York Times January 4, 2010 "[In fall, 2009] the American Law Institute, which created the intellectual framework for the modern capital justice system almost 50 years ago, pronounced its project a failure and walked away from it. [ ... ] "In 1962, as part of the Model Penal Code, the institute created the modern framework for the death penalty, one the Supreme Court largely adopted when it reinstituted capital punishment in Gregg v. Georgia in 1976. [ ... ] "[Although s]ome members had asked the institute to take a stand against the death penalty as such, ... the institute [instead] voted in October [2009] to disavow the structure it had created 'in light of the current intractable institutional and structural obstacles to ensuring a minimally adequate system for administering capital punishment.' "That last sentence contains some pretty dense lawyer talk, but it can be untangled. What the institute was saying is that the capital justice system in the United States is irretrievably broken. "A study commissioned by the institute said that decades of experience had proved that the system could not reconcile the twin goals of individualized decisions about who should be executed and systemic fairness. It added that capital punishment was plagued by racial disparities; was enormously expensive even as many defense lawyers were underpaid and some were incompetent; risked executing innocent people; and was undermined by the politics that come with judicial elections." To read the full article, click on the Title Line, above. NOTE: To read or download articles from The New York Times you must register as a user. This process is free, and takes a few minutes to complete.