Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

Two Puerto Rican defen­dants were giv­en life sen­tences by the same jury that had con­vict­ed them of mur­der in the course of an armored truck rob­bery that occurred in 2002. Puerto Rico has not used the death penal­ty for almost 80 years and for­bids the prac­tice in its con­sti­tu­tion. However, the U.S. fed­er­al death penal­ty applies to the Commonwealth. Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila said that the jury act­ed in accor­dance with Puerto Rican tra­di­tion, which​“loathes and is against the…

In a dra­mat­ic shift from 1999, cit­i­zens in New Jersey now favor life with­out parole over the death penat­ly for those who com­mit mur­der. In a Rutgers University poll released on April 28, 47% of N.J. respon­dents pre­ferred life with­out parole rather than the death penal­ty. In a sim­i­lar poll six years ago, 44% of respon­dents chose the death penal­ty, while 37% sup­port­ed life…

Results from DNA test­ing may soon lead to the exon­er­a­tion of Larry Peterson in New Jersey. He would become the first per­son in the state to be cleared of a homi­cide through DNA evi­dence. Peterson was con­vict­ed of a rape and mur­der that occurred in 1987. For the past 10 years, Peterson tried to have DNA evi­dence from his case test­ed. At his orig­i­nal tri­al in which he faced the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a death sen­tence, the pros­e­cu­tion main­tained that hairs from the crime scene…

A 15-mem­ber mil­i­tary jury sen­tenced Sgt. Hasan Akbar to death for killing 2 U.S. mil­i­tary offi­cers in Kuwait in 2003 dur­ing the open­ing days of the Iraq inva­sion. At his sen­tenc­ing, Akbar said,​“I want to apol­o­gize for the attack that occurred. I felt that my life was in jeop­ardy, and I had no oth­er options. I also want to ask you for for­give­ness.” He is the first American since the Vietnam era to be pros­e­cut­ed for mur­der­ing a fel­low sol­dier in wartime. (N.Y. Times,…

Oregon v. Guzek — The U.S. Supreme Court has announced that it will con­sid­er whether cap­i­tal defen­dants have a con­sti­tu­tion­al right to present evi­dence that would cast doubt on their con­vic­tion dur­ing the penal­ty phase of their death penal­ty tri­als, a ques­tion that has divid­ed state and low­er fed­er­al courts for many years. The defen­dant, Randy Lee Guzek, sought to intro­duce ali­bi evi­dence after he was con­vict­ed dur­ing the sen­tenc­ing phase of his tri­al. This…

A recent Los Angeles Times edi­to­r­i­al called on California law­mak­ers to impose a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions until a state com­mis­sion charged with exam­in­ing the fair­ness and accu­ra­cy of California’s death penal­ty laws can fin­ish its work. The paper not­ed that a sim­i­lar review led by New York state law­mak­ers result­ed in find­ings that effec­tive­ly end­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in that state for this year. The edi­to­r­i­al stat­ed:Many Californians, law­mak­ers as well…

“Scott Sundby’s new book,​“A Life and Death Decision: A Jury Weighs the Death Penalty” is an impar­tial look at cap­i­tal jury delib­er­a­tions through the exam­i­na­tion of data col­lect­ed by the Capital Jury Project and oth­er stud­ies of group deci­­­sion-mak­ing. Drawing on the Capital Jury Project’s inter­views with more than 1,000 jurors from across the coun­try who had tak­en part in death penal­ty cas­es, the book address­es cru­cial issues such as jury instruc­tions, jury room…

Executed on a Technicality: Lethal Injustice on America’s Death Row, by Professor David Dow, is a behind-the-scenes look at the death penal­ty through the lens of an attor­ney who for­mer­ly sup­port­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Dow, who teach­es at the University of Houston Law Center and found­ed the Texas Innocence Network, pro­vides case his­to­ries illus­trat­ing seri­ous flaws in the death penal­ty sys­tem. He uses these cas­es to guide read­ers through a web of coerced…