Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

A May 2004 poll by the polit­i­cal con­sult­ing firm of Ayres McHenry and Associates found that 66% of respon­dents sup­port cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for mur­der, a fig­ure that reflects the low­er sup­port for the death penal­ty found in sev­er­al polls tak­en in 2003. (Ayres McHenry and Associates, May 2004) In 2003, polling results pub­lished by Gallup Poll, ABC News, and the Pew Research Center all mea­sured sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment at 64%, sig­nif­i­cant­ly below the public’s sup­port for capital punishment…

As the U.S. Supreme Court pre­pares to hear argu­ments in Roper v. Simmons regard­ing the death penal­ty for juve­nile offend­ers, researchers have found crit­i­cal evi­dence that the brain con­tin­ues to change dra­mat­i­cal­ly dur­ing ado­les­cence. This research may help explain the impul­sive, often irra­tional behav­ior seen in some teenagers. ​“Kids may know the dif­fer­ence between right and wrong, but that does not stop them from doing dumb and dan­ger­ous things that they would nev­er think of doing as…

The Arizona Supreme Court has ordered that for­mer Pima County pros­e­cu­tor Kenneth Peasley be dis­barred for know­ing­ly elic­it­ing false tes­ti­mo­ny in a cap­i­tal mur­der case. After study­ing the results of a review con­duct­ed by its Disciplinary Commission, the Supreme Court not­ed that the use of false tes­ti­mo­ny in the tri­al of two men accused in a 1992 triple-murder case ​“could not have been more harm­ful to the jus­tice sys­tem.” In their unan­i­mous deci­sion, the Justices stated, ​“A pros­e­cu­tor…

A May 2004 Gallup Poll found that a grow­ing num­ber of Americans sup­port a sen­tence of life with­out parole rather than the death penal­ty for those con­vict­ed of mur­der. Gallup found that 46% of respon­dents favor life impris­on­ment over the death penal­ty, up from 44% in May 2003. During that same time frame, sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as an alter­na­tive fell from 53% to 50%. The poll also revealed a grow­ing skep­ti­cism that the death penal­ty deters crime, with 62% of those polled…

Gordon ​“Randy” Steidl is sched­uled to be freed from an Illinois prison today (May 28^th), 17 years after he was wrong­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to die for the 1986 mur­ders of Dyke and Karen Rhoads. He will be the nation’s 114^th death row inmate to be exon­er­at­ed and the 18^th freed in Illinois. The case against Steidl has long drawn crit­i­cism from jour­nal­ists such as Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune, and inves­ti­ga­tors famil­iar with the facts of the crime. An Illinois State Police…

“Death Penalty – Beyond Abolition” details the path to abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty in Europe, the only region in the world where cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has been almost com­plete­ly erad­i­cat­ed. The book also exam­ines how this devel­op­ment has impact­ed oth­er nations around the world. With arti­cles focus­ing on issues such as work­ing with mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­lies and find­ing appro­pri­ate alter­na­tives to the death penal­ty, the book exam­ines the pio­neer­ing role that the…

In the 11 years since the Defender Association of Philadelphia began to rep­re­sent clients fac­ing mur­der charges, it has com­piled an envi­able record: Not one of its 994 clients has been sent to death row. (During the same time, scores of defen­dants in Philadelphia rep­re­sent­ed by appoint­ed pri­vate attor­neys have been sen­tenced to death.) ​“It stands out as some­thing that is not matched any­where else,” said David J. Carroll of the National Legal Aid and Defender Service. The Defender Association…

Texas Governor Rick Perry has issued a par­don on the basis of inno­cence to Josiah Sutton, a juve­nile offend­er who had served four years of a 25-year prison term before new DNA tests proved his inno­cence. The faulty DNA results used to con­vict Sutton in 1998 were processed by the now thor­ough­ly dis­cred­it­ed Houston Police Department crime lab, the same facil­i­ty that processed DNA and oth­er foren­sic evi­dence used in cas­es that have result­ed in death sen­tences. The lab was shut down in…

Maryland pros­e­cu­tors used the same DNA evi­dence that freed Kirk Bloodsworth (pic­tured) from Maryland’s death row to secure a life-in-prison sen­tence for Kimberly Shay Ruffner, the man who has now con­fessed to the 1984 mur­der of Dawn Hamilton. Bloodsworth spent years on death row for the rape and mur­der of Hamilton before DNA evi­dence con­clu­sive­ly showed that he could not have com­mit­ted the crime. In 1993, he became the first death row inmate in the coun­try to be freed on the basis of DNA…