Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

Two new books on the death penal­ty offer read­ers an exam­i­na­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment law and America’s use of this pun­ish­ment. In ​“Understanding Capital Punishment Law,” a new book pub­lished as part of the LexisNexis Understanding series, law pro­fes­sors Linda Carter and Ellen Kreitzberg offer stu­dents in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment cours­es an overview of this com­plex area of law. The book includes a thor­ough review of con­sti­tu­tion­al law and cur­rent issues relat­ed to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the…

Hung Thanh Le, a Vietnamese for­eign nation­al, is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on February 26^th in Oklahoma. Governor Brad Henry has so far reject­ed a unan­i­mous rec­om­men­da­tion from the Oklahoma Board of Pardon and Paroles to reduce Le’s death sen­tence to life in prison. Le’s appeal notes that he was not informed of his right to con­tact the Vietnamese con­sulate when he was arrest­ed and may have been suf­fer­ing from post-trau­­mat­ic stress dis­or­der stem­ming from the Vietnam war. Leaders of the…

Alan Gell of North Carolina became the nation’s 113^th exon­er­at­ed death row inmate today, February 18, 2004. Gell, who has main­tained his inno­cence since his 1998 con­vic­tion, was acquit­ted of all charges by a jury that delib­er­at­ed for only two and a half hours at his retri­al. In December 2002, a North Carolina judge vacat­ed Gell’s mur­der con­vic­tion and ordered a new tri­al after rul­ing that pros­e­cu­tors with­held impor­tant evi­dence that might have helped exon­er­ate Gell at his first trial.

The authors of a new study pub­lished in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies (J. Blume, T. Eisenberg, & M. Wells, ​“Explaining Death Row’s Population and Racial Composition,” Vol. I, Issue 1, March 2004, at 165) con­clud­ed that Texas’ rep­u­ta­tion as the lead­ing death penal­ty state in the U.S. is attrib­ut­able more to its high num­ber of exe­cu­tions and the large num­ber of mur­ders in the state, rather than to its sen­tenc­ing rate. Despite lead­ing the coun­try by far in terms of number of…

Federal pros­e­cu­tors dropped charges against Darrell Rice short­ly before he was to face cap­i­tal charges for two mur­ders in Shenandoah National Park. New foren­sic evi­dence cast doubt on the case against Rice, despite the fact that Attorney General John Ashcroft had made a pub­lic announce­ment of Rice’s indict­ment employ­ing a new law in 2002. (Washington Post, Feb. 7, 2004). A fed­er­al judge threw out a jury’s (July 2003) ver­dict of guilt in the cap­i­tal case of Jay Lentz, accused of…

Federal pros­e­cu­tors dropped charges against Darrell Rice short­ly before he was to face cap­i­tal charges for two mur­ders in Shenandoah National Park. New foren­sic evi­dence cast doubt on the case against Rice, despite the fact that Attorney General John Ashcroft had made a pub­lic announce­ment of Rice’s indict­ment employ­ing a new law in 2002. (Washington Post, Feb. 7, 2004). A fed­er­al judge threw out a jury’s (July 2003) ver­dict of guilt in the cap­i­tal case of Jay Lentz, accused of…

According to Don Dawson, Tennessee’s chief post-con­vic­­tion defend­er, Dr. Smith had com­plet­ed the autop­sies, super­vised the autop­sies, or tes­ti­fied dur­ing tri­al in 30 to 40 per­cent of the state’s cap­i­tal cas­es. Of the state’s 97 death row inmates, 38 were con­vict­ed in Shelby County where Smith…

Texas has sched­uled the exe­cu­tion of four juve­nile offend­ers between March and June of 2004 despite the fact that the U. S. Supreme Court has agreed to review whether such exe­cu­tions are con­sti­tu­tion­al. Arguments in Roper v. Simmons, No. 03 – 633, a case from Missouri where the state Supreme Court ruled that the exe­cu­tion of those under the age 18 at the time of their crime would be cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment, are not expect­ed to take place until this com­ing fall, months after the…

Charlize Theron, who recent­ly won a Golden Globe Award for her por­tray­al of exe­cut­ed Florida death row inmate Aileen Wuornos in the movie ​“Monster,” has stat­ed that mak­ing the movie made her more aware of how ​“inef­fec­tive” cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is. Theron, who is opposed to the death penal­ty, was only 15 when her own moth­er shot and killed her drunk­en father after he threat­ened to kill his wife and daughter. ​“I don’t think con­demn­ing peo­ple who mur­der and then killing them…

Prosecutors from Middlesex County, New Jersey, have decid­ed to adhere to the wish­es of the vic­tim’s fam­i­ly and will not seek the death penal­ty against Dwayne Carreker of New Brunswick at his retri­al. They will instead seek a sen­tence of life in prison. ​“The vic­tim’s moth­er has said she is more inter­est­ed in jus­tice and clo­sure than she is with the death penal­ty,” said First Assistant Prosecutor William Lamb. Lamb not­ed that his office con­sid­ered the vic­tim’s fam­i­ly’s wish­es and the result of…