Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, together with the Federalist Society and the Constitution Project, recently sponsored a panel in Washington, D.C., examining the application, morality and constitutionality of the death penalty in the United States. The panel was moderated by Virginia Sloan of the Constitution Project and featured Samuel Millsap, Jr., former Texas District Attorney, William Otis, Counselor to the Head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Kenneth Starr (pictured)…

The American Bar Association passed a resolution on August 8 at its annual conference recommending that jurisdictions refrain from sentencing to death or executing individuals with severe mental disorders. Using language adopted earlier by the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association, the resolution asserted that defendants should not be executed or sentenced to death if, at the time of the offense, they had “significant limitations in both their intellectual…

Samuel Flippen is scheduled to be executed on August 18 in North Carolina for the 1994 death of his two-year-old step-daughter, Britnie Hutton. On the day of Britnie’s death, Flippen made emergency 911 calls seeking medical attention for her. There had been no history of him previously injuring Britnie. Defense attorneys claim that Flippen’s actions preceding Britnie’s death are strong evidence that he had no intention of harming his step-daughter. The attorneys are seeking clemency from the…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned the death sentence of an Ohio man convicted in a 1995 contract killing, stating that the death sentence was arbitrary because other equally culpable defendants received lesser sentences. While three other defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment, only nineteen-year-old Jason Getsy was sentenced to death. Prosecutors said John Santine offered Getsy and two other defendants $5000 to kill business rival Charles Serafino because of a…

The stage play of Tim Robbins’ Academy Award winning film, Dead Man Walking, is available to colleges and universities across the country. The play is based on the acclaimed book of the same title by Sister Helen Prejean. Through the Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project, the play provides an opportunity to broaden discussion about the death penalty and involve schools and their local communities in an inter-disciplinary dialogue about this major social issue. The Theatre Project’s new Web…

Although New York’s death penalty was overturned by the state’s high court in 2004, and the legislature has not reinstated it, the federal government has sought the death penalty more in New York than in any other state except Virginia. However, none of the federal cases has resulted in a death sentence. Since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988, thirty-seven federal capital cases have been authorized in New York, compared with 50 in Virginia and 385 nationwide, according to data…

Citing the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a United Nations panel recommended that the United States impose a moratorium on executions. The report, issued on July 28 by the U.N. Human Rights Committee, stated the panel was “concerned by studies according to which the death penalty may be imposed disproportionately on ethnic minorities as well as on low-income groups, a problem which does not seem to be fully acknowledged.” The panel, made up of 18 independent experts…

In a recent editorial, the Delaware News Journal concluded that the uncertainties and delays of the death penalty favor ending the system and replacing it with a sentence of life without parole. Such a system would better serve victims and their families, and bring swifter justice: The latest argument over the death penalty centers on a seemingly simple question: Is the current method of execution cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution? The Supreme Court eventually will…

An article in the July Scientific American examines the extent to which the television program “C.S.I.” and similar forensically-focused programs have increased the expectations of jurors in criminal trials. The article quotes University of California, Irvine, researchers Simon Cole and Rachel Dioso questioning the real impact of such programs: “That television might have an effect on courtrooms is not implausible… but to argue that ‘C.S.I.’ and similar shows are actually raising the number of…

Four years after Andrea Yates faced the death penalty for the drowning deaths of her children, a second jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity. In Yates’ first capital murder trial in 2002, jurors convicted her of murder and recommended a sentence of life in prison. That conviction was overturned on appeal last year after it was shown that the state’s psychiatric witness presented false testimony. In the second trial, jurors deliberated for 13 hours before finding that Yates did not…