Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

In ​“No Justice: No Victory — The Death Penalty in Texas,” author Susan Lee Campbell Solar exam­ines cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Texas through a polit­i­cal lens and with a con­cen­tra­tion on cas­es and anec­dotes that illus­trate the sys­temic flaws she uncov­ered dur­ing her research. The book, com­plet­ed by friends and fam­i­ly of the author after she died unex­pect­ed­ly, fea­tures inter­views with attor­neys, judges and law pro­fes­sors, as well as with those on death row, their…

As part of its five-part series on foren­sic sci­ence and wrong­ful con­vic­tions, the Chicago Tribune exam­ined how sci­en­tif­ic devel­op­ments in fire inves­ti­ga­tions have called into ques­tion cru­cial expert tes­ti­mo­ny in many cas­es, includ­ing some death penal­ty pros­e­cu­tions. As a result of untest­ed the­o­ries, shod­dy analy­sis and a resis­tance to rig­or­ous review, long-time arson inves­ti­ga­tors are now see­ing their con­clu­sions con­tra­dict­ed by colleagues who…

A group of 450 attor­neys par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Conference of Delegates of the California Bar Association has urged a mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty in California until the state reviews whether cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment laws are enforced fair­ly and uniformly. ​“If you make a mis­take, it’s not like you can go back and cor­rect a mis­take because the per­son is dead,” said Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Danette Meyers, sup­port­er of the measure and…

During the past 15 years, the num­ber of African nations aban­don­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has risen from one to 10, and anoth­er 10 nations have abol­ished the death penal­ty in prac­tice accord­ing to a recent tal­ly by Amnesty International. As this trend toward abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty con­tin­ues, few­er Africans than ever are being exe­cut­ed by their gov­ern­ments. The anti-cap­i­­­tal pun­ish­ment move­ment has been espe­cial­ly pow­er­ful in West Africa, where the number of…

A five-part Chicago Tribune inves­ti­ga­tion of foren­sics in the court­room has revealed that flawed test­ing analy­sis, ques­tion­able sci­ence once con­sid­ered reli­able, and shod­dy crime lab prac­tices can often lead to wrong­ful con­vic­tions. Developments in DNA tech­nol­o­gy have helped shed new light on these prob­lems by reveal­ing the shaky sci­en­tif­ic foun­da­tions of tech­niques like fin­ger­print­ing, firearm iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, arson inves­ti­ga­tion, and bite-mark…

In a forum host­ed by the New Voters Project, U.S. Presidential can­di­dates George Bush and John Kerry expressed their views on exe­cut­ing juve­nile offend­ers.​“Federal law pro­hibits exe­cu­tion of those under 18 when the offense was com­mit­ted, and I see no rea­son to change that statute,” said President Bush. Senator John Kerry stat­ed,​“I do not think that exe­cut­ing minors is good pol­i­cy.” (Knight-Ridder, October 17, 2004). On October 13^th, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral…

The Utah Attorney General’s office has rec­om­mend­ed that Bruce Dallas Goodman’s mur­der con­vic­tion be set aside as a result of new DNA tests that have con­firmed Goodman’s stead­fast claims of inno­cence. Goodman was con­vict­ed in 1984 for the mur­der of his girl­friend, Sherry Ann Fales, who was raped, sodom­ized, beat­en to death and aban­doned off an inter­state exit, a crime that qual­i­fied for the death penal­ty. Since his arrest, Goodman has main­tained that he did not murder…

New York’s death penal­ty remains in abeyance, hav­ing been found uncon­sti­tu­tion­al by the state’s high court. A recent N.Y. Newsday edi­to­r­i­al called on law­mak­ers to care­ful­ly exam­ine the fun­da­men­tal prob­lems with the death penal­ty before con­sid­er­ing any rein­state­ment leg­is­la­tion. The edi­to­r­i­al not­ed: On the steps of New York City Hall on Thursday, a coali­tion of death penal­ty oppo­nents — promi­nent­ly includ­ing City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and former…

As the Supreme Court heard argu­ments in the case of Roper v. Simmons on October 13, news­pa­pers through­out the coun­try fea­tured edi­to­ri­als and opin­ion pieces call­ing on the U.S. to aban­don the prac­tice of exe­cut­ing juve­nile offend­ers:The New York Times When the Supreme Court con­sid­ers an Eighth Amendment chal­lenge, it looks to​“evolv­ing stan­dards of decen­cy” — and there has been a steady move­ment nation­al­ly away from the juve­nile death penal­ty. In the…