Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

On November 3, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear a non-cap­i­­tal case from Alaska in which the defen­dant asserts that the con­sti­tu­tion requires the state to allow DNA test­ing on evi­dence from his tri­al so that he can prove his inno­cence. In District Attorney’s Office v Osborne (No 08 – 6), the Court will ini­tial­ly con­sid­er whether William Osborne may bring a civ­il rights claim (under 42 USC 1983) demon­strat­ing that the state has vio­lat­ed his con­sti­tu­tion­al right to due…

The num­ber of fed­er­al death sen­tences has increased in the past sev­en years, while the num­ber of state death sen­tences has declined. The size of the fed­er­al death row has tripled since 2000, while the num­ber of peo­ple on state death rows has dropped. There has also been a marked increase in the num­ber of peo­ple on the fed­er­al death row from states that do not have their own death penalty…

A North Carolina pros­e­cu­tor has announced he will seek the death penal­ty in a case where the vic­tim spoke out against cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and her fam­i­ly oppos­es it. Before her death, col­lege stu­dent and University of North Carolina stu­dent body pres­i­dent Eve Carson told fel­low stu­dents gath­ered for a death penal­ty dis­cus­sion that she did not agree with the death penal­ty due to the flaws in its appli­ca­tion. She noted, ​“It doesn’t work, in my opin­ion.” After Carson’s mur­der, her…

Jim Trainum, a police offi­cer of over 25 years, recent­ly dis­cussed how shocked he was to dis­cov­er how he and oth­er offi­cers were able to obtain a con­fes­sion to mur­der from an inno­cent woman. Trainum explained, ​“Reviewing the tapes years lat­er, I saw that we had fall­en into a clas­sic trap. We ignored evi­dence that our sus­pect might not have been guilty, and dur­ing the inter­ro­ga­tion we inad­ver­tent­ly fed her details of the crime that she repeat­ed back to us in her…

Two dozen exon­er­at­ed ex-death row pris­on­ers from across the coun­try will hold a news con­fer­ence on October 31 in Austin to call for the estab­lish­ment of a statewide com­mis­sion on wrong­ful con­vic­tions and a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in Texas. The 24 men spent a com­bined total of near­ly 200 years on death row before being freed. They will be joined by State Rep. Elliot Naishtat and for­mer Bexar County District Attorney Sam Millsap…

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. Tabak recounts the ABA​’s efforts since the mid-1980​’s to secure com­pe­tent rep­re­sen­ta­tion at every state of legal pro­ceed­ings, stating that…

The US Court of Appeals for the 11^th Circuit issued a stay for Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis on October 24. The fed­er­al appeals court’s three-judge pan­el ordered both sides to draft briefs to address wheter Davis can be exe­cut­ed if he can demon­strate his like­ly inno­cence. Davis’ case has gar­nered both inter­na­tion­al and nation­al atten­tion. Former President Jimmy Carter and the European Union were among those call­ing for a stay of exe­cu­tion. Davis was sched­uled to be executed on…

Elon University School of Law’s Professor Victor Streib has released a new edi­tion of his book, Streib’s Death Penalty in a Nutshell. It cov­ers both the sub­stan­tive and the pro­ce­dur­al law of the death penal­ty and begins with argu­ments for and against the death penal­ty and an expla­na­tion of its basic con­sti­tu­tion­al chal­lenges and lim­i­ta­tions. Professor Streib cov­ers cap­i­tal crimes and defens­es, as well as tri­al lev­el and post tri­al pro­ce­dur­al issues. Other top­ics include race and gender…