Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

In a recent New York Times op-ed, University of Chicago law and crim­i­nol­o­gy pro­fes­sor Bernard Harcourt notes that a grow­ing num­ber of indi­vid­u­als​“who used to be tracked for men­tal health treat­ment are now get­ting a one-way tick­et to jail.” Pointing to a Justice Department study released in September 2006, Harcourt notes that 56% of those jailed in state pris­ons and 64% of all inmates across the nation report­ed men­tal health prob­lems with­in the past year. He states that…

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case regard­ing the exclu­sion of cap­i­tal jurors to its dock­et this term. The case, Uttecht v. Brown, No. 06 – 413, involves the removal of a poten­tial juror from a death penal­ty tri­al because of the juror’s views about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. In this case, dur­ing jury selec­tion in a Washington state mur­der case, the tri­al judge dis­missed a juror because of state­ments he made about his will­ing­ness to impose a death…

In an opin­ion piece in the New York Times, for­mer New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Peter G. Verniero (pic­tured) said that the state should replace its flawed death penal­ty with the sen­tence of life with­out parole. Verniero is a for­mer sup­port­er of the death penal­ty, but now believes that the cur­rent statute is​“inef­fec­tive,”​“con­sumes enor­mous ener­gy and resources,” and the state​“lacks the col­lec­tive will to car­ry out capital…

Reggie Wilkinson, who wit­nessed 19 exe­cu­tions dur­ing his 33 years with the Ohio Department of Corrections, recent­ly stat­ed that he would like to see exe­cu­tions end­ed in the state. Wilkinson, who served for 15 years as Director of the Department of Corrections and advo­cat­ed for aban­don­ing the state’s elec­tric chair and replac­ing it with lethal injec­tion, noted, ​“I would not oppose the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty. The United States is the only industrialized…

In a recent Dallas Morning News edi­to­r­i­al, the paper not­ed the incon­gruity between the state apol­o­giz­ing to a prison inmate who was freed fol­low­ing DNA test­ing, and its aggres­sive pur­suit of irrev­o­ca­ble exe­cu­tions. The paper stat­ed that​“human error is an inher­ent part” of the jus­tice sys­tem and called on leg­is­la­tors to enact a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions until the state can review the accu­ra­cy and fair­ness of its capital…

Corrections: A Contemporary Introduction is a new aca­d­e­m­ic text being released by Allyn & Bacon pub­lish­ers. Authored by Leanne F. Alarid of the University of Texas and Philip L. Reichel of the University of Northern Colorado, this resource offers a thor­ough exam­i­na­tion of all aspects of the cor­rec­tions area in a graph­i­cal­ly rich for­mat. It offers students the…

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…

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,…

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 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…