Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

A recent San Jose Mercury News edi­to­r­i­al rec­om­mend­ed includ­ing the death penal­ty in the California Performance Review pre­pared for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to reduce pub­lic spend­ing. The paper stat­ed that the aban­don­ment of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment would save valu­able tax­pay­er dol­lars in the state and praised local efforts to sup­port a tem­po­rary halt to exe­cu­tions while cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is reviewed. The edi­to­r­i­al not­ed: Termination of the death penalty…

A fed­er­al judge has thrown out Ernest Ray Willis’ cap­i­tal con­vic­tion after finding ​“strong rea­son to be con­cerned that Willis may be actu­al­ly inno­cent” and that West Texas author­i­ties need­less­ly drugged him and con­cealed evi­dence at his tri­al. The deci­sion casts doubt on Willis’ 1987 con­vic­tion for the arson-mur­der of two women in Pecos County, a crime that anoth­er death row inmate, David Long, lat­er con­fessed he had com­mit­ted. In his rul­ing, U.S. District…

North Carolina Governor Mike Easley signed a bill into law that requires pros­e­cu­tors to share their files in all felony cas­es. The bill was approved in the wake of alle­ga­tions that pros­e­cu­tors with­held evi­dence in the cap­i­tal mur­der tri­al of Alan Gell, who was lat­er exon­er­at­ed and freed from death row. The new open dis­cov­ery statute requires dis­trict attor­neys to open their inves­tiga­tive files in felony cas­es to defense lawyers who request such access prior to…

An op-ed appear­ing in the Arizona Republic and authored by Dr. Mark Wellek, past pres­i­dent of the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, and Carol Kamin, cur­rent pres­i­dent of the Arizona Chapter of the Children’s Action Alliance, echoed grow­ing nation­al con­cerns about the cul­pa­bil­i­ty of juve­nile offend­ers who face cap­i­tal charges despite sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence that they may be less cul­pa­ble than adult offend­ers. Wellek and Kamin not­ed:​“American soci­ety has many…

In Alameda County, California, pros­e­cu­tors announced that they will not seek the death penal­ty against Richard Dean Wilson because it is unlike­ly that a jury would return a death sen­tence. State authories say the deci­sion to seek a life sen­tence for Wilson avoids a cost­ly death penal­ty case and saves tax­pay­er dol­lars from financ­ing a lengthy tri­al with an uncer­tain out­come. Wilson plead­ed no con­test to the mur­der of Angela Marie Bledsoe. Prosecutor Jim Anderson noted,…

The California Supreme Court is ask­ing the state’s attor­ney gen­er­al’s office to explain why Fred Freeman’s death sen­tence should not be reversed on alle­ga­tions that a now-deceased Superior Court Judge col­lud­ed with pros­e­cu­tors to ensure a cap­i­tal con­vic­tion by elim­i­nat­ing poten­tial Jewish jurors. The Supreme Court issued the show cause order after Freeman’s attor­neys filed a claim stat­ing that Freeman was denied a fair tri­al because Judge Stanley Golde allegedly…

In Texas, Jefferson County District Attorney Tom Maness recent­ly not­ed that the time-con­­­sum­ing and cost­ly nature of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment may lead to its demise.​“I think this is the begin­ning of the end of the death penal­ty,” said Maness after a Criminal District Court Judge rec­om­mend­ed that the Court of Criminal Appeals com­mute the death sen­tence of Walter Bell to life in prison. On three occas­sions, Jefferson County spent count­less hours of work and hun­dreds of thousands…

A new study con­duct­ed by Professor Richard Berk of the UCLA Department of Statistics has iden­ti­fied sig­nif­i­cant sta­tis­ti­cal prob­lems with the data analy­sis used to sup­port recent stud­ies claim­ing to show that exe­cu­tions deter crime in the United States. In​“New Claims about Executions and General Deterrence: Deja Vu All Over Again?,” Professor Berk address­es the prob­lem of​“influ­ence,” which occurs when a very small and atyp­i­cal frac­tion of the available data…

Despite efforts by some state lead­ers to quick­ly​“fix” the state’s death penal­ty stat­ue, oppo­si­tion from many leg­is­la­tors halt­ed attempts to pass a bill before the sum­mer recess at the end of July. At a leg­isla­tive con­fer­ence on the issue, Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry not­ed that​“a lot of peo­ple who spoke were against it.” These sen­ti­ments prompt­ed Majority Leader Paul Tokasz to announce that leg­is­la­tors were​“going to take some time with it” before decid­ing how to…