Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s 1994 death penalty law is unconstitutional because it contains a provision giving the state an advantage when jurors find the aggravating and mitigating factors presented at sentencing to be equal. In that circumstance, the current law states that the defendant must be sentenced to death. The Court ruled that such a provision does not allow the jury to express a reasoned moral response to the evidence, and the process does not comport with the…

As New York lawmakers conducted the first in a series of hearings on the state’s death penalty, Robert M. Morgenthau, Manhattan’s long-serving District Attorney, recommended that New York abandon the practice: “It’s the deed that teaches, not the name we give it,” Morgenthau said, quoting George Bernard Shaw. He went on to note, “The penalty exacts a terrible price in dollars, lives, and human decency. Rather than tamping down the flames of violence, it fuels them….I urge all of our lawmakers…

Andrew Cuomo (pictured), who served as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1997 to 2001, recently urged New York lawmakers to put an end to the death penalty. The state is holding hearings on capital punishment in the wake of a N.Y. Court of Appeals decision finding the statute unconstitutional earlier this year. In his op-ed in The New York Times, Cuomo noted: The Democrats, who control the Assembly, should make it clear that they will not pass a new death penalty law. This…

Read the Press Release. Copies may be obtained by contacting DPIC. The report will be posted on our Web site in the near future.

On December 13, 2004, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that the effectiveness of defense counsel’s performance must be judged by standards previously set out by the Court in Strickland v. Washington. In Florida v. Nixon, Joe Nixon’s attorney told the jury his client was guilty without his client’s express consent. After the jury sentenced Nixon to death, the Florida Supreme Court overturned Nixon’s conviction, holding that counsel’s concession of guilt automatically fell below an objective…

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. This…

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 wrongful capital convictions…

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 executed earlier this year in Texas despite his consistent…

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 issuing rulings with “no…

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 months to two years,” Codey’s spokeswoman…