A court hear­ing is under way in the cap­i­tal tri­al of Donald Fell in a Vermont fed­er­al dis­trict court chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the fed­er­al death penal­ty. This week, death penal­ty experts tes­ti­fied for the defense about sys­temic prob­lems Fell’s lawyers say may ren­der the fed­er­al death penal­ty uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Fell was sen­tenced to death in 2006, but was grant­ed a new tri­al because of juror mis­con­duct. The hear­ing began on July 11 and is sched­uled to con­tin­ue until July 22. Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford, who is pre­sid­ing over the hear­ing and is set to pre­side over Fell’s sec­ond tri­al in 2017, said the hear­ing will, ​“cre­ate a rich, fac­tu­al record for high­er courts with broad­er author­i­ty to rule on the big ques­tions.” On Monday, Craig Haney, a psy­chol­o­gy pro­fes­sor at the University of California Santa Cruz, dis­cussed research on the effects of soli­tary con­fine­ment, the con­di­tions under which Fell has been held on death row. ​“According to the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, any­thing greater than 15 days is inhu­mane, cru­el and degrad­ing treat­ment,” Haney said. On Tuesday, Michael Radelet, a soci­ol­o­gy pro­fes­sor at the University of Colorado, tes­ti­fied about the decline of the death penal­ty both in use and in pub­lic opin­ion, say­ing, ​“Attitudes toward the death penal­ty have changed more rapid­ly than any oth­er social issue oth­er than gay mar­riage.” Radelet tes­ti­fied that research has dis­closed no evi­dence that the death penal­ty deters mur­der or affects over­all mur­der rates. He also empha­sized the preva­lence and caus­es of the 156 wrong­ful cap­i­tal con­vic­tions as a major prob­lem with cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. ​“Last year six peo­ple were released, most hav­ing served 25 years. In 2014, sev­en were released from death row as inno­cent. One had been in for 30 years,” he said. ​“The num­ber one cause of error is prej­u­di­cial pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al tes­ti­mo­ny. Prosecutorial mis­con­duct, false con­fes­sions, fraudulent forensics.”

(K. Phalen Tomaselli, ​“Expert: death penal­ty inhu­mane,” Barre Montpelier Times-Argus, July 12, 2016; K. Phalen Tomaselli, ​“Fell: Death penal­ty views chang­ing,” Barre Montpelier Times-Argus, July 13, 2016.) See Studies and Innocence.

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