Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

On December 10, 2004 (Human Rights Day), the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of Jose Medellin to deter­mine what effect the United States should give to a recent rul­ing by the International Court of Justice at the Hague, the United Nations’ high­est court. In the case of Medellin and 50 oth­er Mexican nation­als on death row, the World Court ruled that the U.S. failed to inform Mexico of their arrests, in vio­la­tion of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

The Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law has released a new report enti­tled, The Snitch System: How Snitch Testimony Sent Randy Steidl and Other Innocent Americans to Death Row. The report high­lights 51 cas­es of Americans who were wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and giv­en death sen­tences based on the tes­ti­mo­ny of wit­ness­es with incen­tives to lie. According to the Center, snitch tes­ti­mo­ny is the pri­ma­ry cause for approx­i­mate­ly 45% of all…

After exam­in­ing evi­dence from the cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion of Cameron Willingham (pic­tured), four nation­al arson experts have con­clud­ed that the orig­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion of Willingham’s case was flawed and it is pos­si­ble the fire was acci­den­tal. The inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion, report­ed by the Chicago Tribune, found that pros­e­cu­tors and arson inves­ti­ga­tors used arson the­o­ries that have since been repu­di­at­ed by sci­en­tif­ic advances. Willingham was…

Three Texas death row appeals con­sid­ered dur­ing the past year by the U.S. Supreme Court have result­ed in sharp rever­sals, per­haps indi­cat­ing an increas­ing impa­tience with two of the courts that han­dle death penal­ty cas­es from Texas: the Court of Criminal Appeals, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In one of the Supreme Court opin­ions, the Court con­clud­ed that the Fifth Circuit was only​“pay­ing lip ser­vice to prin­ci­ples” of appel­late law in…

New Jersey Governor Richard Codey (pic­tured) pro­posed a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions until a study com­mis­sion could deter­mine whether the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem is fair and cost effec­tive. The gov­er­nor announced his mora­to­ri­um pro­pos­al as the leg­is­la­ture began con­sid­er­ing a bill to ini­ti­ate the study.​“The gov­er­nor does not think it makes sense to do a study with­out a mora­to­ri­um. So he does sup­port a mora­to­ri­um right now, and he sup­ports it for 18…

The last six exe­cu­tions sched­uled for 2004 have all been grant­ed stays by var­i­ous courts and gov­er­nors. Executions slat­ed in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Texas, Maryland and North Carolina were halt­ed for review of claims regard­ing pos­si­ble inno­cence, men­tal dis­abil­i­ties, exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures, and oth­er issues. The last exe­cu­tion occurred on November 17 in Texas. No oth­er state has an exe­cu­tion sched­uled for 2004. See…

DPIC has pre­pared a sum­ma­ry of the Innocence Protection Act of 2004, which became law on October 30, 2004 as part of the Justice for All Act. The law pro­vides rules and pro­ce­dures for fed­er­al inmates apply­ing for DNA test­ing, cre­ates the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Grant Program for state inmates apply­ing for test­ing, and autho­rizes $25 mil­lion over five years to help states pay the cost of post-con­vic­­­tion DNA test­ing. Read DPIC​’s Summary of the…

A new book by Dale Recinella, The Biblical Truth About America’s Death Penalty, ana­lyzes cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment through an exam­i­na­tion of reli­gious texts and teach­ings. Using sources such as the Torah, the Talmud, and the Bible, Recinella out­lines what bib­li­cal texts say regard­ing who is deserv­ing of the death penal­ty and who is grant­ed the author­i­ty to impose such a sen­tence. While explor­ing issues such as inno­cence, race, men­tal capac­i­ty, and prosecutorial…

(Note: Dec. 1 exe­cu­tion of Frances Newton has been stayed by the gov­er­nor.) As Texas plans to car­ry out the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Frances Newton on December 1, a new report doc­u­ment­ing the results of a nation­al sur­vey of women cur­rent­ly on death row found that many women have been sub­ject­ed to harsh liv­ing con­di­tions and that most were sen­tenced for the mur­der of some­one they knew. The report, The Forgotten Population: A Look at Death Row in the United States Through…

A review of Louisiana’s death penal­ty in recent years revealed that twice as many con­demned inmates have walked free from death row than have been exe­cut­ed. Since 1999, of the 22 peo­ple whose cas­es were final­ly resolved, 12 had their death sen­tences reversed and were ordered to serve less­er sen­tences, 6 were freed after courts ordered their charges dis­missed, 1 died of nat­ur­al caus­es, and 3 were exe­cut­ed. Of the three who were exe­cut­ed, two were represented by…