Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

The release of two Virginia men who were exon­er­at­ed after the state con­duct­ed new DNA test­ing on evi­dence from 31 cas­es has prompt­ed Governor Mark Warner (pic­tured) to call for a more sweep­ing review of the state’s stored bio­log­i­cal evi­dence. Warner has ordered 660 box­es con­tain­ing thou­sands of files from 1973 through 1988 to be exam­ined for cas­es that can be retest­ed using the lat­est DNA technology. ​“I believe a look back at these retained case files is the only moral­ly acceptable course,…

A recent Newsweek arti­cle notes that a grow­ing num­ber of jurors in cap­i­tal mur­der cas­es are voic­ing their con­cerns about the accu­ra­cy and fair­ness of the jus­tice sys­tem. Some of these jurors have peti­tioned the legal author­i­ties to cor­rect injus­tices regard­ing pos­si­bly inno­cent or incor­rect­ly sen­tenced inmates.“I felt like I was pushed into mak­ing the deci­sion of the 10 oth­er jurors. I did­n’t feel com­fort­able with it, but I did­n’t know my rights as a juror,” said Sylvia Coeburn, one of…

During a recent meet­ing of the European Union’s full assem­bly, European Parliament pres­i­dent Josep Borrell called on the 76 coun­tries around the world that con­tin­ue to retain the death penal­ty to dis­con­tin­ue use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. He not­ed that the United States is the only demo­c­ra­t­ic state that makes ​“wide­spread use” of the death penal­ty and that the European Union has a duty to con­vince Americans to end the practice. ​“Most unfor­tu­nate­ly, in the U.S. the 1000^th exe­cu­tion was carried…

Former San Antonio District Attorney Sam Millsap, who once pro­claimed himself a ​“life­long sup­port­er of the death penal­ty,” now oppos­es cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Millsap says his deci­sion to oppose the death penal­ty was recent­ly affirmed as evi­dence sur­faced that Texas may have killed an inno­cent man when it exe­cut­ed Ruben Cantu, a San Antonio man who was sen­tenced to die while Millsap was DA. ​“It is trou­bling to me per­son­al­ly. No deci­sion is more fright­en­ing than seek­ing the death penal­ty. We owe…

In a let­ter to act­ing New Jersey Govenor Richard J. Codey, Ocean County pros­e­cu­tor Thomas F. Kelaher called for an end to the death penal­ty in New Jersey because he feels the sys­tem is inef­fec­tive and fails to meet the needs of vic­tims’ fam­i­lies. Kelaher, who has been a pros­e­cu­tor for 23 years, said that life with­out parole would be a more appro­pri­ate sen­tenc­ing option for those con­vict­ed of first-degree murder. ​“The his­to­ry of non­ap­pli­ca­tion of the law has been a cru­el hoax on families of…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in The Birmingham News crit­i­cized the cost­ly and unfair nature of Alabama’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. It also called on state leg­is­la­tors to, at a min­i­mum, take steps that would lim­it the num­ber of crimes eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty. The news­pa­per, which recent­ly wrote a series of edi­to­ri­als chang­ing its long-stand­ing sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and call­ing on the state to aban­don the use of the death penalty,…

As evi­dence sur­faces that Texas may have killed an inno­cent man when it exe­cut­ed Ruben Cantu in 1993, recent edi­to­ri­als by the Austin American-Statesman and the Dallas Morning News have crit­i­cized Texas’ death penal­ty and called on the state to take a clos­er look at its ​“flawed” cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. The Austin American-Stateman wrote: We all should remem­ber (Ruben) Cantu’s case and the lessons it offers as the coun­try car­ries out its 1000^th exe­cu­tion since 1976 sched­uled for today in…

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear argu­ments in two death penal­ty cas­es on Wednesday, December 7, 2005, includ­ing a case to deter­mine the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Kansas’ death penal­ty statute and a case that involves the issue of inno­cence. In Kansas v. Marsh, No. 04 – 1170, the jus­tices will con­sid­er the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Kansas’ death penal­ty, which requires that a death sen­tence be imposed when a jury finds that aggra­vat­ing cir­cum­stance and mit­i­gat­ing cir­cum­stances have equal weight. The jury…

Sixty-five per­cent of vot­ers in North Carolina favor sus­pend­ing the death penal­ty until ques­tions about its accu­ra­cy and fair­ness can be stud­ied accord­ing to a recent Hart Research poll spon­sored by the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers.The poll found that even among vot­ers who iden­ti­fy them­selves as strong sup­port­ers of the death penal­ty, 43% still favor a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions while an in-depth study of cap­i­tal punishment is…

Two new books by American University Criminology Professor Robert Johnson, includ­ing one book of satire and a sec­ond book of short sto­ries co-authored with pris­on­er Victor Hassine and crim­i­nol­o­gist Ania Dobrzanska, address life in prison and on death row in the United States. Johnson’s first book of satire, ​“Justice Follies,” offers a col­lec­tion of par­o­dies that seek to high­light a host of prob­lems with­in the American prison system. ​“This book made me laugh out loud. It is out­ra­geous… and…