Entries by Death Penalty Information Center


News 

Sep 062013

INNOCENCE: The Role of Journalists in Freeing An Innocent Man

The for­tu­itous inves­ti­ga­tion of a case by per­sis­tent jour­nal­ists, rather than the work­ings of the lim­it­ed appel­late process, has led to the exon­er­a­tion of a num­ber of inno­cent indi­vid­u­als. Maurice Possley (l.), a for­mer reporter for the Chicago Tribune, recent­ly wrote how he and fel­low-jour­­­nal­ist Steve Mills (r.) helped free Daniel Taylor (c.) in Illinois, where he had spent more than 20 years in prison. In…

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News 

Sep 052013

STUDIES: American Bar Association Releases Assessment of Virginia Death Penalty

On September 5, the American Bar Association’s Death Penalty Due Process Review Project released its lat­est report, focus­ing on the fair­ness and accu­ra­cy of Virginia​’s death penal­ty sys­tem. The assess­ment rec­om­mend­ed changes to the way the state han­dles defen­dants with men­tal retar­da­tion and severe men­tal ill­ness. It also rec­om­mend­ed requir­ing pros­e­cu­tors to dis­close addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion about tes­ti­fy­ing witnesses and…

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News 

Sep 042013

COSTS: Death Penalty Cases in Colorado Take Six Times Longer Than Life Sentences

A new study of the cost of the death penal­ty in Colorado revealed that cap­i­tal pro­ceed­ings require six times more days in court and take much longer to resolve than life-with­­­out-parole (LWOP) cas­es. The study, pub­lished in the University of Denver Criminal Law Review, found that LWOP cas­es required an aver­age of 24.5 days of in-court time, while the death-penal­­­ty cas­es required 147.6 days. The authors not­ed that select­ing a jury in an LWOP case…

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News 

Sep 032013

NEW VOICES: Former Florida Justice Calls for Fundamental Change in Death Penalty

Raoul Cantera (pic­tured), a for­mer Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, said the state should fol­low the prac­tice of almost every oth­er death penal­ty state and require juries to be unan­i­mous when rec­om­mend­ing a death sen­tence. Cantera also said that a a com­pre­hen­sive review of the state’s death penal­ty is​“long over­due” and should begin by con­sid­er­ing the rec­om­men­da­tions of a 2006 American Bar Association report on the state’s death…

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News 

Aug 302013

BOOKS: Contemporary Religious Views on the Death Penalty

Anthony Santoro has writ­ten a new book about reli­gious per­spec­tives on the death penal­ty, Exile and Embrace: Contemporary Religious Discourse on the Death Penalty. In describ­ing the book, John D. Bessler, a law pro­fes­sor at the University of Baltimore, said,​“Santoro tells the sto­ries of every­one from death row chap­lains to blog­gers and Bible study par­tic­i­pants. In dis­cussing trans­gres­sion, ret­ri­bu­tion, and​‘the oth­er,’ he skillfully…

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News 

Aug 292013

STUDIES: The Role of Implicit Racial Bias in the Death Penalty

A new study test­ing inter­nal atti­tudes and stereo­types among poten­tial jurors in six death penal­ty states may help to explain the racial dis­par­i­ties that per­sist in the appli­ca­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Researchers Justin Levinson (l.), Robert Smith (r.), and Danielle Young test­ed 445 jury-eli­gi­ble indi­vid­u­als and found they har­bored two kinds of racial bias: they main­tained racial stereo­types about Blacks and Whites and made asso­ci­a­tions between the race of an…

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News 

Aug 282013

MENTAL ILLNESS: Man Who Defended Himself in a Cowboy Suit Deemed Sane Enough for Execution

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recent­ly held that Texas death row inmate Scott Panetti is sane enough to be exe­cut­ed, despite his long his­to­ry of severe men­tal ill­ness. Panetti was sen­tenced to death for the 1992 mur­der of his in-laws. Putting aside Panetti’s bizarre behav­ior in court, the judge allowed him to rep­re­sent him­self at tri­al, where he wore a pur­ple cow­boy suit and sub­poe­naed Jesus Christ and Anne Bancroft as…

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News 

Aug 272013

EDITORIALS: Ohio Paper Calls for Transparency and Caution in Selecting Execution Process

As Ohio pre­pares to change its exe­cu­tion process in October, the Toledo Blade called on the state to stop the secre­cy sur­round­ing the selec­tion of an alter­na­tive to cur­rent lethal injec­tion drugs. The edi­tors wrote,​“No state should pro­ceed with sched­uled exe­cu­tions until the drug, or mul­tidrug cock­tail, it plans to use has been proven to be humane and effi­cient. The process of chang­ing how peo­ple are exe­cut­ed in Ohio should…

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News 

Aug 262013

RECENT LEGISLATION: Texas Law To Protect the Innocent May Curtail Death Penalty

A new Texas law requir­ing DNA test­ing of all bio­log­i­cal evi­dence pri­or to seek­ing the death penal­ty could reduce the num­ber of cap­i­tal cas­es. District Attorney Billy Byrd of Upshur County not­ed,​“Essentially, every piece of evi­dence will have to be test­ed,” he said, which could delay tri­als more than a year.​“Certainly, that will be the case. We will have to deal with cer­tain delays and longer waits,” he added, not­ing it is not uncommon…

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News 

Aug 232013

POSSIBLE INNOCENCE: Federal Judge Throws Out Pennsylvania Conviction As Grave Miscarriage of Justice’

A fed­er­al judge in Pennsylvania over­turned the con­vic­tion of a death row inmate, stat­ing he was​“sen­tenced to die for a crime in all prob­a­bil­i­ty he did not com­mit.” U.S. District Court Judge Anita Brody found errors in all facets of the case, not­ing that​“Improper police work char­ac­ter­ized near­ly the entire­ty of the inves­ti­ga­tion.” She described the pros­e­cu­tion as​“a grave mis­car­riage of jus­tice,” and crit­i­cized the defense for failing to…

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