Two experts with conflicting views on the existence of racial disparity and arbitrariness in the Connecticut death penalty debated their positions in an intense exchange at UConn School of Law on Nov. 20, 2015.
The event, co-sponsored by the Connecticut Bar Association and the Connecticut Bar Foundation, featured Stanford Law Professor John Donohue and Dr. Stephan Michelson of Long Branch Research Associates in North Carolina. Donohue had testified for the plaintiffs and Michelsen for the state in the state Supreme Court case In Re Claims of Racial Disparity, a consolidated habeas appeal filed by death row inmates in Connecticut. The plaintiffs claimed that race and other arbitrary factors, such as the location where a murder charge was prosecuted, determined whether defendants would face capital punishment.
