Special Report

As we enter the 21st century, Americans have never been more divided over the proper role of the death penalty. Some of us (still a minority) would like to see it entirely abolished — and we have achieved this goal in a dozen states, beginning with Michigan in 1847 and most recently in Vermont in […]

One cost this country pays for the death penalty is that its courts are constantly compelled to corrupt the law in order to uphold death sentences. That corruption soils the character of the United States as a nation dedicated to equal justice under law. This is not the only price we pay for being one […]

If you’d asked Nick Yarris how old he was, on May 17, 2004 — his 43rd birthday — he’d have told you, “121 days.” For the rest of his life, Yarris will have his regular birthday and the day he was born again: January 16, 2004, the day he walked out of the Pennsylvania State […]

Despite a judiciary increasingly dominated by conservative appointees, the federal courts have shown a heartening willingness to rein in the death penalty. In recent years, they have limited who is eligible and have placed other restrictions on states’ arbitrary conduct. Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court, by a vote of 6 to 3, halted […]

Change in the criminal-justice system is a rare thing. Change in death-penalty policy is even more rare. Yet Illinois undertook a comprehensive reassessment of its death-penalty system recently, passing reforms that will have far-reaching impacts on how murder trials are handled in the state — and that could serve as a model for reform in […]

We both work in New York City, where the deepening inequality documented in the preceding articles is palpable in everyday life. Housing prices in Manhattan recently reached an average of $1 million, a cost that requires annual earnings of about $400,000 to amortize. Looking at the country as a whole, CEOs in the financial sector […]

During his 12 years as a U.S. Congressman from Colorado, David Skaggs did his best to listen to all his constituents. He held open office hours during which anyone could just walk in. He hosted town meetings around his district, which covered the northwest suburbs of Denver. He set up at supermarkets, talking to whoever […]

In the last two presidential elections, about half of Americans did not vote; many of them said they were too busy or not interested enough. In non-presidential-election years, voter turnout has barely exceeded one-third of voting-age adults. The American record is especially embarrassing in contrast to nearly every other advanced democracy. In national elections since […]

A look at Americans’ health reveals the astonishing inequalities in our society. American girls are born with a life expectancy that ranks 19th in the world (in another survey they fall to 28th). Male babies rank 31st — in a dead tie with Brunei. Among the 13 wealthiest countries, the United States ranks last or […]

The share of income going to the top one-tenth of 1 percent of American families quadrupled between 1970 and 1998, leaving the 13,000 richest families with almost as much income as the 20 million poorest families. Ordinary Americans seem to be well aware of this growing gap between rich and poor. In a recent opinion […]