Articles

St. Louis Post-Dispatch January 28, 2004 Editorial Next fall, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether the United States will join the rest of the civilized world in banning the execution of juveniles. The court announced this week that it will review last summer’s Missouri Supreme Court ruling that the execution of 16- and 17-year old murderers conflicts with society’s evolving standard of decency. The state Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of Christopher Simmons, who was 17…

By Richard C. Dieter From: Foreign Service Journal, October 2003 Richard Dieter is Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center. A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, he also teaches capital punishment law at Catholic University Law School. Slowly, but impressively, international law and opinion are beginning to have an impact on law in the United States, and particularly on the death penalty. While the law and practices of other countries may not have played a…

COLORADO: “Clarify death penalty” (source: Editorial, Denver Post) “The 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has overturned the death sentences of more than 100 prisoners in Arizona, Idaho and Montana, further complicating the death-penalty debate. While the ruling will have no effect in Colorado, it provides new impetus for the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify its 2002 Ring vs. Arizona ruling — which has now been interpreted in 3 differing ways by the 9^th, 6^th and 11^th circuits.

Following is the prepared text of Illinois Gov. George Ryan’s speech at Northwestern University College of Law before granting clemency to all inmates on the state’s death row (NYTimes.com, January 11, 2003) Four years ago I was sworn in as the 39^th Governor of Illinois. That was just four short years ago; that’s when I was a firm believer in the American System of Justice and the death penalty. I believed that the ultimate penalty for the taking of a life was administrated in a just and fair…

By PAMELA FERDINAND Special to The Washington Post BOSTON — The kid was a domestic terror. He beat his younger brother. He shoved his single mother down the stairs, and he put his fist through the doors and walls of their rented house in Concord, N.H. Last fall at school, he assaulted a student. By then he had turned 17, and because he lived in New Hampshire, he went to the adult county jail for two weeks before being released on probation. As a juvenile, he had received psychological…

New York Times Thursday, March 21, 2002 A comparison of some rules for military tribunals for terrorism suspects with courts-martial and civilian courts. RIGHT TO COUNSEL COMPOSITION OF JURY VOTE REQUIRED TO CONVICT RULES OF EVIDENCE VENUE FOR APPEALS CIVILIAN FEDERAL COURTS Accused chooses own lawyer, or one is provided if the accused cannot afford one. 12 members drawn at random. Unanimous decision to convict and to impose sentence, including the death penalty. Strict federal rules of…

Sr. Helen Statement after Terrorist Attacks Sister Helen Prejean, csj September 17, 2001 I’m on a U.S. Airways plane — half-filled — on my way back to New Orleans after a week of cancelled speaking engagements. I’ve seen American flags everywhere — in shops, on people’s suitcases, on the lapels of pilots and flight attendants. Everybody’s been glued to the T.V. looking in disbelief at the sight of our own planes crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Everybody’s swapping…

Bibliography of Recent Articles and Programs on the DP Dialogue on the Death Penalty Project Compiled by Professor James Liebman, Columbia University School of Law (see also, Recent Articles on the Death Penalty — with text available on DPIC’s Web site) (alphabetical by author) Adams, Noah et al, Illinois death row releases closely match executions in number, supporting call for moratorium while process is reviewed, All Things Considered, National Public Radio January 27, 2000. (available…

NEW YORK TIMES August 22, 2000 YOUNG AND CONDEMNED / A SPECIAL REPORT Whether to Kill Those Who Killed as Youths By SARA RIMER and RAYMOND BONNER If the state of Georgia electrocutes Alexander Williams on Thursday, as planned, five people who committed murder when they were 17 will have been put to death this year in the United States. That is more than in any year since 1954, when six teenagers were executed in Florida and Georgia. Mr. Williams, now 32, is one of 80 condemned youthful…

Blackman, Paul H.: “A critique of the epidemiologic study of firearms and homicide”; 1 Homicide Studies 169 (1997) Jamieson, Katherine M. and Zahn, Margaret A.: “Changing patterns of homicide and social policy”; 1 Homicide Studies 190 (1997) Lattimore, Pamela K. et al.: “Homicide trends in eight U.S. cities: project overview and design”; 1 Homicide Studies 84 (1997) Martinez Jr., Ramiro: “Homicide among Miami’s ethnic groups: Anglos, Blacks, and Latinos in the 1990s”; 1 Homicide Studies 17…