Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

Members of the North Carolina House Select Committee on Capital Punishment heard repeat­ed calls for a halt to exe­cu­tions in the state dur­ing a recent hear­ing attend­ed by vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers, reli­gious lead­ers, and oth­er cit­i­zens. Among those tes­ti­fy­ing at the hear­ing was Shirley Burns, the moth­er of a son who is await­ing exe­cu­tion at the end the January and a sec­ond son who was mur­dered in April 2006. ​“How many have had to sit on both sides of the table? I had to come to grips with…

A recent poll admin­is­tered by the Center for Survey Research at Penn State Harrisburg revealed that more Pennsylvanians pre­fer a life sen­tence over the death penal­ty for those con­vict­ed of mur­der. The poll found that only 42.9% of respon­dents chose the death penal­ty when also giv­en the sen­tenc­ing options of life with parole and life with­out parole. A total of 45% of respon­dents chose either life-with­­out-parole (35.5%) or the sen­tence of life-with-parole (9.6%). Larry Frankel, legislative…

Victims’ advo­cates and pros­e­cu­tors are urg­ing Texas leg­is­la­tors to exclude the death penal­ty from new leg­is­la­tion designed to tough­en penal­ties for repeat child moles­ters. Those opposed to the mea­sure fear that threat­en­ing death sen­tences for sex offend­ers could lead to few­er report­ed cas­es of sex crimes and might even give incen­tive to offend­ers to kill their vic­tims to pre­vent the child from tes­ti­fy­ing in court. Annette Burrhus-Clay, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Texas Association…

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on January 5 to hear anoth­er death penal­ty case from Texas, this one involv­ing a defen­dant who may be men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent. In 1986, the Supreme Court held that it is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al to exe­cute an inmate who is present­ly insane. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5^th Circuit ruled that Scott Panetti, who was allowed to defend him­self in his Texas tri­al despite his schiz­o­phre­nia and 14 stints in men­tal hos­pi­tals, and who says the dev­il com­pelled his actions, was…

An edi­to­r­i­al pub­lished by the Lexington Herald-Leader not­ed that sup­port for Kentucky’s death penal­ty has declined since the state resumed exe­cu­tions a decade ago. The paper stat­ed that 68% of state res­i­dents ques­tioned in a recent poll pre­ferred a long prison sen­tence over exe­cu­tion for those con­vict­ed of mur­der. The Herald-Leader con­clud­ed that Kentuckians’ grow­ing unease about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is reflec­tive of a broad­er nation­al trend away from the death penal­ty and that the death…

Professor Matthew Robinson of Applachian State University has writ­ten a new book enti­tled Death Nation: The Experts Explain American Capital Punishment. This book pro­vides a sol­id yet brief back­ground on the major issues per­tain­ing to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the United States. It cov­ers top­ics such as the his­to­ry of the death penal­ty in America, American death penal­ty law, jus­ti­fi­ca­tions for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, as well as alleged prob­lems with its prac­tice. The book also presents a study…

The report from the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission that called for an end to the state’s death penal­ty was pre­pared by a group of indi­vid­u­als rep­re­sent­ing a wide vari­ety of view­points and expe­ri­ence. The mem­bers of the Commission were:Governor Jon S. Corzine…

EXECUTION REPRIEVES Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio grant­ed tem­po­rary reprieves to three inmates sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in the next 5 weeks in order to allow more time to con­sid­er whether clemen­cy should be grant­ed: Kenneth Biros, James Filiaggi, and Christopher Newton. (Jan. 19, 2007). See…

After exten­sive pub­lic hear­ings, the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission issued a report on January 2 call­ing for an end to the state’s death penal­ty and replac­ing it with a sen­tence of life with­out parole. The 13-mem­ber Commission was appoint­ed by the state leg­is­la­ture, which also placed a mora­to­ri­um on all exe­cu­tions until a report was pre­pared. The report cit­ed the risks of exe­cut­ing the inno­cent, the high costs of the death penal­ty, and soci­ety’s evolv­ing stan­dards of decency…

One of the first inmates sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in 2007 is Ronald Chambers, who has been on death row since Gerald Ford was President, and longer than any oth­er inmate in Texas. He is fac­ing exe­cu­tion on January 25, thir­­ty-one years after he was first sen­tenced to death for mur­der. His co-defen­­dant in the crime, Clarence Ray Williams, plead­ed guilty and is serv­ing two life sen­tences. Chambers’ con­vic­tion was over­turned twice since 1976, includ­ing once on the grounds that…