Entries by Death Penalty Information Center
News
Oct 20, 2009
STUDIES: Disparities in Legal Representation in Harris County, Texas
Scott Phillips, a professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Denver, recently published a study that revealed disparities in who receives the death penalty inTexas. Phillips studied the 504 death penalty cases that occurred between 1992 and 1999 in Harris County (Houston and surrounding areas). Harris County is the largest jurisdiction in the United States to use a court-appointment system for selecting lawyers to defend…
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Oct 20, 2009
DPIC Releases New Report on Costs of the Death Penalty and Police Chiefs’ Views
The Death Penalty Information Center has released its latest report, “Smart on Crime: Reconsidering the Death Penalty in a Time of Economic Crisis.” The report combines an analysis of the costs of the death penalty with a newly released national poll of police chiefs who put capital punishment at the bottom of their law enforcement…
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Oct 16, 2009
NEW VOICES: Judge Says Death Penalty “too fraught with variables to survive”
Retired Federal Appeals Court Judge H. Lee Sarokin recently offered a harsh critique of the death penalty, especially challenging the botched execution attempt of Romell Broom in Ohio in September. Citing morality, arbitrariness, and the dim prospects of closure for the murder victims’ families, Judge Sarokin called the imposition of the death penalty an erratic and flawed process that should not be permitted to continue. “The system is too fraught with variables to survive.
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Oct 15, 2009
Gallup Poll: Support for Death Penalty Remains Near 25-Year Low
The latest Gallup Poll on the death penalty shows 65% of Americans support the death penalty, significantly lower than the 80% support recorded in 1994 and near the lowest support of 64% in the past 25 years recorded last year. Only 57% believe the death penalty is fairly applied, and 59% of Americans believe that an innocent person has been executed in the last five years. Gallup reported that support for the death penalty is lower if Americans are offered an explicit…
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Oct 14, 2009
Supreme Court to Review Effect of “Gross Negligence” by Death Penalty Attorney
On October 13, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Holland v. Florida, a case raising the question of “whether ‘gross negligence’ by a state-appointed defense attorney in a death penalty case provides a basis for extending the time to file a federal habeas challenge, in a case where the habeas plea was filed late despite repeated instructions from the client.” (scotusblog.com). In his petition for certiorari to the Court, the…
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Oct 13, 2009
STUDIES: FBI Uniform Crime Report Finds Murder Rates Declined in 2008
The annual crime report released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed a decline in the national murder rate. The rate dropped 4.7% in 2008 compared to 2007. Despite a regional decline, the South still has the highest murder rate among the four geographic regions: 6.6 murders per 100,000 people, higher than the national rate of 5.4. The Northeast still maintains the lowest murder rate at 4.2. There were 16,272 murders or non-negligent manslaughters in…
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Oct 09, 2009
BOOKS: That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row
“That Bird Has My Wings” is a new book by Jarvis Jay Masters, an inmate on San Quentin’s death row in California. In this memoir, Masters tells his story from an early life with his heron-addicted mother to an abusive foster home. He describes his escape to the illusory freedom of the streets and through lonely nights spent in bus stations and juvenile homes, and finally to life inside the walls of San Quentin Prison. Using the nub and filler from a…
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Oct 07, 2009
OPINION: Florida’s Death Penalty System Still ‘Fraught with Problems’
A recent op-ed in the Florida Times-Union pointed to continuing problems in Florida’s death penalty system despite prior recommendations for change in an American Bar Association report three years ago. The article was written by Raoul Cantero III, a former Florida Supreme Court justice appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, and Mark Schlakman, a senior program director for Florida State University’s Center for the Advancement of Human Rights. The authors state…
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Oct 06, 2009
Two More Exonerations From Death Row: 137th and 138th Persons Freed in Oklahoma
Two former death row inmates who were charged with murder in a 1993 drive-by shooting were released on October 2 after spending nearly 14 years in prison, including years on Oklahoma’s death row. District Attorney David Prater dropped charges against Yancy Douglas (left),35, and Paris Powell (right), 36, after deciding the state’s key witness was unreliable. “Ethically, and on my duty, I could not proceed in this case and had to dismiss it,”…
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Oct 06, 2009
Michael Toney, Recently Exonerated from Death Row in Texas, Dies in Car Crash
Michael Toney, who recently became the 136th person exonerated and freed from death row since 1973, died in a car crash on October 3 in East Texas. He had been released from jail one month ago on September 2 after the state dropped all charges against him for a 1985 bombing that killed three people. Toney’s conviction was overturned on December 17, 2008 by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals because the prosecution suppressed evidence relating to the…
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