Entries by Death Penalty Information Center

An edi­to­r­i­al by Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, past pres­i­dent of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, notes that crime labs are over­whelm­ing­ly back­logged with work and that defi­cien­cies of per­son­nel, space and equip­ment in foren­sic sci­ence labs often lead to shod­dy prac­tices and erro­neous test results, as recent­ly exem­pli­fied by the prob­lems uncov­ered at the Houston Police Department DNA lab (see below). Dr. Wecht…

For near­ly two decades, Dennis Halstead, John Kogut, and John Restivo main­tained their inno­cence in the 1985 mur­der of 16-year-old Theresa Fusco. Although DNA test­ing in the 1990​’s cast doubt on their guilt, the men remained in jail in New York because a judge deemed the tests not reli­able enough to over­turn the con­vic­tions. Now the men have been freed from prison after pros­e­cu­tors joined defense attor­neys in ask­ing a sec­ond judge to vacate the con­vic­tions based on more sophis­ti­cat­ed DNA…

An arti­cle in the Wisconsin Law Review, ​“The Right to Effective Assistance of Capital Postconviction Counsel: Constitutional Implications of Statutory Grants of Capital Counsel” by Celestine Richards McConville, exam­ines the need for expe­ri­enced and effec­tive coun­sel dur­ing state and fed­er­al cap­i­tal post­con­vic­tion pro­ceed­ings. The author notes that, ​“Despite the impor­tant role of post­con­vic­tion coun­sel, the United States Supreme Court has held that crim­i­nal defen­dants seeking state…

Ohio Governor Bob Taft has grant­ed clemen­cy to Jerome Campbell, who was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on June 27^th for a 1988 mur­der in Cincinnati. The clemen­cy, Taft’s first since he took office, fol­lows the rec­om­men­da­tion of the state’s Parole Board, which vot­ed 6 – 2 in favor of clemen­cy. Defense attor­neys main­tain that Campbell should be retried because a DNA test he request­ed from the state showed that blood on his gym shoes intro­duced as tri­al evi­dence was Campbell’s own blood, not the…

The Diet Members’ League for Abolition of the Death Penalty, a par­lia­men­tary group of the gov­ern­ing Liberal Democratic Party, has draft­ed leg­is­la­tion to replace the death penal­ty with life in prison. In addi­tion, the bill would estab­lish pan­els in both Houses of the Diet to study cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The bill does not pro­pose an imme­di­ate aban­don­ment of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, but instead impos­es a four-year mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. During this time, the par­lia­men­tary pan­els would be charged with…

In ​“Last Meal,” Jacquelyn C. Black recre­ates the last acts of 23 peo­ple exe­cut­ed in Texas. Photographs depict­ing each inmate’s last meal are accom­pa­nied by descrip­tions of the inmates, and tran­scripts of their last words before exe­cu­tion. The book also con­tains gen­er­al infor­ma­tion about the death penal­ty. Award-win­n­ing direc­tor Liz Garbus notes, ​“This pow­er­ful and dis­turb­ing book gives invalu­able insight into the inhu­man­i­ty of the death penal­ty, while pro­vid­ing a snap­shot of the humanity and…

A new Amnesty International report exam­ines the case of Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman, a Tennessee death row inmate sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on June 18. His case involves ques­tions of inad­e­quate defense and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. The report notes that after learn­ing of excul­pa­to­ry and mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence that was kept from the jury at Abdur’Rahman’s tri­al, eight of the orig­i­nal tri­al jurors said that they no longer have con­fi­dence in their sen­tenc­ing ver­dict. In addi­tion, a Tennessee Supreme Court…

A new Amnesty International report exam­ines the case of Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman, a Tennessee death row inmate sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on June 18. His case involves ques­tions of inad­e­quate defense and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. The report notes that after learn­ing of excul­pa­to­ry and mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence that was kept from the jury at Abdur’Rahman’s tri­al, eight of the orig­i­nal tri­al jurors said that they no longer have con­fi­dence in their sen­tenc­ing ver­dict. In addi­tion, a Tennessee Supreme Court…

American mil­i­tary offi­cials say that a Canadian teen being held at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba could be eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty. The 17-year-old boy was cap­tured in Afghanistan last July and is accused of killing a U.S. medic dur­ing bat­tle as a mem­ber of al-Qaida. After 18 months of impris­on­ment, none of the 700 detainees have been offi­cial­ly charged, but a review of their cas­es by President George W. Bush is pend­ing. Some of the cas­es could involve cap­i­tal charges, and…

Although he beheads up to sev­en peo­ple a day, Saudi Arabia’s lead­ing exe­cu­tion­er, 42-year-old Muhammad Saad Al-Beshi, says that he leads a nor­mal life and is car­ry­ing out God’s will. Using a sword giv­en to him as a gift by the gov­ern­ment, Al-Beshi has per­formed pub­lic exe­cu­tions since 1998 and has since trained his son, Musaed, to also become an executioner. ​“An exe­cu­tion­er’s life, of course, is not all killing. Sometimes it can be ampu­ta­tion of hands and legs. I use a spe­cial sharp knife,…