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News and Developments 2008: Law Reviews

STUDIES: Racial Disparities in the Capital of Capital Punishment

Posted: December 03, 2008
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A new study published in the Houston Law Review, “Racial Disparities in the Capital of Capital Punishment,” explores the relationship of race to death sentencing in Harris County (Houston), Texas. In the study, Prof. Scott Phillips of the University of Denver explores patterns involving the race of both victims and defendants, while controlling for other variables.

NEW RESOURCES: The Supreme Court’s Emerging Death Penalty Jurisprudence: Severe Mental Illness as the Next Frontier

Posted: November 06, 2008
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Professor Bruce Winick of the Miami School of Law has written an article arguing that the Supreme Court should extend the protection it presently offers to those with mental retardation and juveniles to offenders with severe mental illness, as well.

NEW RESOURCES: The Private Bar’s Efforts to Secure Proper Representation for those Facing Execution

Posted: October 27, 2008
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Civil rights litigator and death penalty expert Ronald J. Tabak recently published “The Private Bar’s Efforts to Secure Proper Representation for those Facing Execution” in the Justice System Journal. The article presents an in-depth review of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) role in ensuring effective counsel in capital cases.

NEW RESOURCES: Symposium: The Lethal Injection Debate: Law & Science

Posted: August 12, 2008
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The Fordham Urban Law Journal has published a series of articles based on a symposium on lethal injection that was held at Fordham Law School in March 2008.  The issue includes articles by Professor Deborah Denno of Fordham, a leading historian and expert on methods of execution, Judge Jeremy Fogel, a federal judge overseeing the challenge to lethal injection in California, Judge Fernando Gaitan, a federal judge who oversaw the challenge to Missouri's lethal injection process, and articles by doctors and other experts who spoke at the symposium.

NEW RESOURCES: The Absence of Adequate Counsel in Alabama Death Penalty Appeals

Posted: July 31, 2008
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Professor Celestine Richards McConville explores the plight of inmates on Alabama's death row who face execution despite being denied adequate representation for key parts of their appeal in her law review article, "The Meaninglessness of Delayed Appointments and Discretionary Grants of Capital Postconviction Counsel.” The article is part of a University of Tulsa Law Review symposium issue on "The Death Penalty and the Question of Actual Innocence." The article points out that Alabama’s courts will not grant counsel to a death row inmate in post-conviction appeals until after the pe

NEW RESOURCE: Revitalization of a Capital Defendent's Right to Expert Assistance

Posted: June 30, 2008
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A recent law review article argues that capital defendants' right to expert assistance would grow stronger through the revitalization of the 1983 Supreme Court decision in Ake v.

NEW RESOURCES: "Lessons from New York's Recent Experience with Capital Punishment"

Posted: June 20, 2008
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Prof. James Acker has published an article in the latest edition of the Vermont Law Review entitled, “Be Careful What You Ask For: Lessons from New York’s Recent Experience with Capital Punishment.” The article explores the various standards by which the death penalty was evaluated during the last decade in New York. The public debate first addressed the question of, “Is it right?” with a focus on retribution, morality and religion. The second set of questions addressed was, “Is it useful? Is it cost-effective?

NEW RESOURCES: Study on Quality of Defense Representation in Tennessee Death Penalty Cases

Posted: June 05, 2008
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A recent law review article explores the quality of defense representation in capital cases in Tennessee. Authors William Redick, Jr., Bradley Maclean, and M. Shane Truett conducted an in depth study of Tennessee death penalty cases in their article, “Pretend Justice--Defense Representation in Tennessee Death Penalty Cases” in the University of Memphis Law Review.

NEW RESOURCES: Study Finds Evidence of Race-of-Defendant Bias in Texas Death Penalty

Posted: April 29, 2008
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A new study by Professor Scott Phillips of the Univeristy of Denver found that black defendants in Houston, Texas, are more likely to be sentenced to death than white defendants, even when other variables are accounted for. The research, to be published in a forthcoming edition of the Houston Law Review, looked at cases eligible for the death penalty in the county that is the source of the highest number of executions in Texas, which itself is responsible for more executions than any other state.

NEW RESOURCES: Pierce Law Review Releases Special Death Penalty Issue

Posted: April 15, 2008
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The March 2008 issue of the Pierce Law Review explores many aspects of the death penalty through articles written by renowned death penalty scholars and attorneys. With a forward by Christopher M. Johnson, the Review examines the death penalty at individual, societal, and international levels. To coincide with the publication of this issue, the Franklin Pierce Law Center in New Hampshire held a panel discussion on the death penalty on April 15, 2008.

The articles included in this special death penalty issue of the Pierce Law Review are: