The results of a poll of police chiefs recently featured in DPIC's report "Smart on Crime: Reconsidering the Death Penalty in a Time of Economic Crisis" is now available in the form of a slide presentation on the Web, suitable for use in workshops or discussion groups. The poll, commissioned by DPIC and conducted by R.T. Strategies of Washington, DC, surveyed a national sample of 500 randomly selected U.S. police chiefs on questions regarding the death penalty and reducing violent crime. Although the police chiefs did not oppose the death penalty philosophically, they found it to be an ineffective crime fighting tool. Among those surveyed, only 1% of the chiefs listed greater use of the death penalty as the best way to reduce violence. The poll also showed police chiefs ranking the death penalty as the least efficient use of taxpayers' money among programs to fight crime. Most of the police chiefs did not believe the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder.
Lawyers for Khanh Dinh Phan asked the Georgia Supreme Court to dismiss the charges against him or to bar the state from seeking the death penalty because the state has been unable to pay for Phan's defense. After his arrest in 2005, Chris Adams and Bruce Harvey were appointed to represent Phan. "The state of Georgia has made Mr. Harvey and myself potted plants," Adams recently said. "We are lawyers in name only. ... The state of Georgia has failed, and failed miserably, in this case." The case has yet to go to trial, and the state public defender system has been unable to pay for attorney fees, expert witnesses, and for investigators. Gwinnett District Attorney Danny Porter agreed that there has been no money for the defense, and that the state defender system is "fatally flawed," but urged the judges not to dismiss the charges or strike the death penalty. Porter said, "We all agree that funding has not been provided, and I don't know if there's a realistic possibility funding will be provided." The Georgia Supreme Court is expected to rule in a similar issue in which a Pike County death penalty defendant has waited four years to go to trial because there was no funding for his defense.
Sam Millsap, a former Texas district attorney from San Antonio, recently called for DNA testing in the case of Hank Skinner, who is scheduled for execution on March 24. Texas has so far refused to conduct additional DNA tests on critical evidence from the crime scene that could support Skinner's claim of innocence. For the last decade, the state has blocked DNA testing of key pieces of evidence, including a knife that might be the murder weapon and a man's windbreaker found next to the victim's body, which had blood, sweat and hair on it. Skinner's trial attorney failed to investigate another potential suspect, a man who was a relative of the victim and wore a windbreaker like the one found at the murder scene. Millsap stated, "Since 1973, 139 people in 26 states have been released from death row based on evidence of their innocence. Eleven of them were in Texas. Many of these people were freed because of DNA evidence. But DNA testing works only if we use it … It is cases like Skinner's that ended my lifelong support for the death penalty. Any system driven by the decisions of human beings will produce mistakes." Read full text below. 
On March 8, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland postponed the execution of Lawrence Reynolds, who was found unconscious in his death row cell hours before he was to be driven to the execution facility. Reynolds, who was sentenced to die for a murder in 1994, apparently took an overdose of pills despite being under a 72-hour watch that includes frequent monitoring by prison guards. He was found unconscious in his cell around 11:30 pm, and was rushed to a hospital in Youngstown, Ohio. Ohio State Penitentiary spokeswoman Julie Walburn confirmed that Reynolds was alone in his death row cell. The state has rescheduled his execution for March 16. This is the second time the state has postponed Reynolds' lethal injection. He was scheduled for execution in October 2009, but Gov. Strickland delayed executions so the state could review its lethal injection procedure following the failed attempt to execute Romell Broom. Since then, Ohio became the first state to adopt a one-drug lethal injection protocol, a method that Reynolds has challenged.
On March 4, Houston District Judge Kevin Fine granted a pretrial motion in a capital case and declared the death penalty in Texas unconstitutional. Judge Fine said the state's law violates a defendant’s right to due process because of the risk of executing an innocent person. The judge based his ruling on studies around the country and in Texas that indicated, "it can only be concluded that innocent people have been executed….Are you willing to have your brother, your father, your mother be the sacrificial lamb, to be the innocent person executed so that we can have a death penalty so that we can execute those who are deserving of the death penalty?” The defendant's defense attorneys were pleased with the judge's decision, although they believe the ruling will be appealed and probably reversed. Sandra Guerra Thompson, professor at the University of Houston Law Center, said trial judges sometimes issue rulings that are unlikely to stand up on appeal to start a dialogue in the judicial branch. While Texas has consistently led the nation in annual executions, the state has followed a nationwide trend with a decline in new death sentences in 2009. UPDATE: Judge Fine decided to delay a final ruling on the motion until both sides have a chance to be heard. The defendant's death penalty trial has been put on hold, and a hearing will be held on April 27.
On March 3, a federal District Court barred the re-prosecution of former Ohio death row inmate Joe D'Ambrosio (pictured) for the murder of Tony Klann over 22 years ago. The court had ruled in 2006 that state prosecutors improperly withheld evidence about their star witness that could have exonerated D'Ambrosio at his 1989 trial. That ruling led to D'Ambrosio's conviction and death sentence being vacated, and he was eventually released on bond pending a possible retrial. But the state delayed reprosecuting him and did not tell the court that its primary witness, their only eyewitness to the murder, had died. The court concluded that these developments biased D'Ambrosio's chances for a fair trial, and hence the state was barred from retrying him. The state may appeal this decision.From DPIC
A video clip from MSNBC-TV (Feb. 12, 2010) was prompted by DPIC's recent report "Smart on Crime." It takes a particular look at the costs of the death penalty in Texas. Click here to view on MSNBC's site. |
From DPIC
RACE AND THE DEATH PENALTY
In August 2009, North Carolina passed the Racial Justice Act, becoming the second state to allow statistical evidence to show racial bias in the death penalty. In an individual case, the law allows a judge to overturn the death sentence or prevent prosecutors from seeking the death penalty if bias is shown. Governor Beverly Purdue, who signed the act into law, stated "I have always been a supporter of death penalty, but I have always believed it must be carried out fairly. The Racial Justice Act ensures that when North Carolina hands down our state’s harshest punishment to our most heinous criminals – the decision is based on the facts and the law, not racial prejudice.” View a video describing how race played a significant role in the case of one man who was recently executed in Georgia.
For more information, see DPIC's Page on Race. For a downloadable podcast about race, click here or use the player below.
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