POVERTY

The death penalty is imposed most often on people with the fewest resources. Poverty frequently determines who is sentenced to death.

In jurisdictions that produce the highest number of death sentences, inadequate legal representation is common. The difference between life and death is often not the facts of a case, but whether a person had access to a skilled, well-resourced defense. People with money can mount one. People without it cannot.

The Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) often enters capital cases after a death sentence has already been imposed. When we do, we routinely uncover failures that deprived juries of critical information. Evidence left unexplored. Trauma, disability, and mental illness ignored. These are not rare mistakes. They are systemic.

SCHR fights for the lives of people failed by their original representation while pushing for structural change. A system that allows death sentences without guaranteeing meaningful defense for poor people is not justice. Poverty should never decide who lives and who dies.