Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

A new book of pho­tog­ra­phy by Taryn Simon fea­tures por­traits of 45 men and women who served more than 500 years in prison for crimes they did not com­mit. The book includes sum­maries of each case accom­pa­nied by relat­ed images, such as re-cre­a­tions of the scenes of the arrest, por­traits of ali­bi wit­ness­es, or vignettes from the lives of the wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed. The book also con­tains com­men­tary by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld of The Innocence Project at Cardozo Law School in New York.

In a recent col­umn exam­in­ing Massachusetts’ con­sid­er­a­tion of the death penal­ty, con­ser­v­a­tive colum­nist George Will cites the con­clu­sions of death penal­ty experts who have close­ly exam­ined the accu­ra­cy and effec­tive­ness of this pun­ish­ment. Will cit­ed the work of the Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment and espe­cial­ly the expe­ri­ence of author Scott Turow. Will believes that Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s effort to find a fault­less death penal­ty will ultimately…

A report in the Chicago Tribune reveals that police and pros­e­cu­tors rarely pur­sue new leads and sus­pects after a wrong­ly con­vict­ed defen­dant has been exon­er­at­ed of the crime and released from death row. As a result, few sus­pects are brought to jus­tice for crimes once con­sid­ered so heinous that they were wor­thy of the death penal­ty, and the actu­al per­pe­tra­tors remain in soci­ety to poten­tial­ly com­mit addi­tion­al crimes. The Tribune report not­ed that court records indi­cate that an alternate…

A spe­cial edi­tion of the Hofstra Law Review fea­tures an in-depth look at the American Bar Association’s Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases. The law review exam­ines the ABA’s revised defense coun­sel guide­lines that were approved on February 10, 2003, and it con­tains arti­cles based on an October 2003 con­fer­ence at Hofstra University dur­ing which all death penal­ty juris­dic­tions were urged to imple­ment the revised guide­lines. The ABA’s…

In a speech urg­ing U.S. lead­ers to rat­i­fy the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which for­bids the exe­cu­tion of juve­nile offend­ers, President Jimmy Carter not­ed that the United States and Somalia are the only two coun­tries in the U.N. that have not approved the guidelines. ​“My wife (Rosalyn) writes let­ters to the gov­er­nors of each state when a child is going to be exe­cut­ed,” Carter not­ed as he praised his wife’s work to end the juve­nile death penal­ty. Carter added…

In a speech urg­ing U.S. lead­ers to rat­i­fy the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which for­bids the exe­cu­tion of juve­nile offend­ers, President Jimmy Carter not­ed that the United States and Somalia are the only two coun­tries in the U.N. that have not approved the guidelines. ​“My wife (Rosalyn) writes let­ters to the gov­er­nors of each state when a child is going to be exe­cut­ed,” Carted not­ed as he praise his wife’s work to end the juve­nile death penal­ty. Carter noted…

In a speech urg­ing U.S. lead­ers to rat­i­fy the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which for­bids the exe­cu­tion of juve­nile offend­ers, President Jimmy Carter not­ed that the United States and Somalia are the only two coun­tries in the U.N. that have not approved the guidelines. ​“My wife (Rosalyn) writes let­ters to the gov­er­nors of each state when a child is going to be exe­cut­ed,” Carted not­ed as he praise his wife’s work to end the juve­nile death penal­ty. Carter noted…

Two years after Brandon Biggs first expressed for­give­ness for Chante Mallard, the woman who killed his father in a nation­al­­ly-pub­­li­­cized Texas mur­der, he has received a $10,000 col­lege schol­ar­ship from pris­on­ers on death row. The schol­ar­ship is fund­ed through adver­tis­ing and subscriptions to ​“Compassion,” a two-year-old newslet­ter edit­ed by and fea­tur­ing arti­cles by death row inmates across the nation. Biggs, whose father was struck by a car on a Fort Worth high­way and left to bleed to death,…

A new book by Margaret Edds, an award-win­n­ing edi­to­r­i­al writer with the Virginian-Pilot, explores the wrong­ful con­vic­tion of for­mer Virginia death row inmate Earl Washington. ​“An Expendable Man: The Near-Execution of Earl Washington, Jr.” pro­vides detailed analy­sis of the state’s pros­e­cu­tion of Washington, a men­tal­ly retard­ed man who spent almost 18 years in prison — near­ly 10 of those on death row — for a mur­der he did not com­mit. The book reveals the rel­a­tive ease with which individuals who…

Michael Lee McCormick has been on Tennessee’s death row for 17 years, but a recent court deci­sion throw­ing out the remain­ing evi­dence against him could result in his free­dom. Judge Doug Meyer ruled that tapes con­tain­ing con­ver­sa­tions between McCormick and an under­cov­er police offi­cer who had befriend­ed him were inad­mis­si­ble due to ​“police mis­con­duct.” Meyer not­ed that McCormick, who is an alco­holic, had con­tin­u­al­ly denied his involve­ment in the crime ​“until the author­i­ties made him dependent…