Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

On October 13, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear two cap­i­tal cas­es from Texas in which the defen­dant was sen­tenced to death after the jury was giv­en instruc­tions that the Court has since found uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Unlike in most states where the jury con­sid­ers a range of aggra­vat­ing and mit­i­gat­ing cir­cum­stances about the crime and the defen­dant before choos­ing a sen­tence of life or death, in Texas the jury was (the law has since been mod­i­fied) giv­en a series…

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal from Texas death row inmate LaRoyce Smith even though they had reviewed his case once before. On October 6, 2006, the Court grant­ed cer­tio­rari to decide whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had applied the wrong stan­dard after the Supreme Court had sent Smith’s case back to them ear­li­er. The dis­pute does not involve Smith’s 1991 con­vic­tion for the mur­der of a Taco Bell man­ag­er in Dallas. Rather the Supreme Court…

Edward Johnson is a for­mer FBI Agent who cur­rent­ly over­sees inves­tiga­tive work for the Union County (NJ) Prosecutor’s Office. He recent­ly expressed his per­son­al opin­ions about the state’s death penal­ty. He con­clud­ed that in New Jersey pub­lic opin­ion may now have moved to the point where the death penal­ty will be abol­ished. He…

At a joint press con­fer­ence held by the European Commission (EC) and the Council of Europe, Vice-President Franco Frattini of the EC stat­ed that​“the admin­is­tra­tion of State killing via the judi­cial sys­tem serves no use­ful pur­pose in pre­vent­ing crime but can have a bru­tal­is­ing effect on societies…

As part of DPIC​’s ongo­ing mis­sion to serve the pub­lic with analy­sis and infor­ma­tion on issues con­cern­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, we have devel­oped a resource cen­ter for stu­dents. This page will assist stu­dents wish­ing to do explore issues sur­round­ing the death penal­ty. There are ideas for debates and research papers as well as links to con­nect stu­dents with aca­d­e­m­ic resources on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The new link answers fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions, such as DPIC​’s…

Corey Maye was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of a police offi­cer in Prentiss, Mississippi, on the day after Christmas in 2001. The police offi­cer was part of a drug raid on a neigh­bor’s apart­ment. Maye claims that the police broke into his duplex unan­nounced and that he fired his gun in defense of him­self and his 18-month-old daugh­ter. Mississippi Circuit Court Judge Michael Eubanks recent­ly ruled that Maye was enti­tled to a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing because his…

A Los Angeles Times arti­cle on the recent hear­ings in fed­er­al District Court regard­ing the California’s lethal injec­tion process was enti­tled​“The Chaos Behind California Executions.” Excerpts from the…

On October 10^th, 2006, John Grisham​’s first non-fic­­­tion book, The Innocent Man, will be released. The book is the com­pelling true sto­ry of Ron Williamson, a for­mer home­town base­ball hero of Ada, Oklahoma, who was con­vict­ed in 1988 of rap­ing and mur­der­ing Debbie Carter. In 1999, Williamson was exon­er­at­ed of the crime after serv­ing eleven years on death row. In the con­text of this case, Grisham address­es many of the fun­da­men­tal issues that sur­round the death…

Christopher Slobogin of the University of Florida’s Law School has writ­ten a new book about the state’s legal author­i­ty to deprive peo­ple with men­tal dis­abil­i­ties of life or lib­er­ty. The book dis­cuss­es a num­ber of well known cas­es such as that of John Hinckley and Andrea Yates. It also includes dis­cus­sion of laws deal­ing with the insan­i­ty defense, the death penal­ty, com­mit­ment of sex­u­al preda­tors, and hos­pi­tal­iza­tion of peo­ple con­sid­ered unable to make…

One attor­ney’s appeal brief on behalf of a Texas death row inmate was so poor­ly writ­ten that State District Judge Noe Gonzalez of Edinburg wrote that​“Applicant total­ly mis­in­ter­prets what actu­al­ly occurred in this case.” A com­mit­tee of cit­i­zens and attor­neys filed a com­plaint about the appel­late lawyer with the State Bar of Texas, but noth­ing was done: the lawyer remains on the state’s list of approved death penal­ty attor­neys, and the client remains on death row. The…