Publications & Testimony

Items: 101 — 110


Oct 13, 2023

New Legal Research Declares Heightened Standards” of Due Process in Capital Cases an Illusion”

In a new law review arti­cle, Professor Anna VanCleave of the University of Connecticut School of Law argues that the height­ened stan­dards” of due process pro­tec­tion for cap­i­tal defen­dants, required under the Eighth Amendment, are in prac­tice no more than a veneer of legit­i­ma­cy and pro­ce­dur­al cau­tion” that fail to vin­di­cate defen­dants’ rights. Professor VanCleave found that in the absence of clear guid­ance from the Supreme Court as to the actu­al mean­ing of height­ened stan­dards,” low­er courts apply the same stan­dards used in non-cap­i­tal crim­i­nal cas­es or even relax rules…

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Oct 12, 2023

Republican-Led State Legislative Committee Considers Death Penalty Moratorium in Oklahoma

On October 5, 2023, the Oklahoma House Judiciary Criminal Committee met to dis­cuss ongo­ing con­cerns regard­ing the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem and the pos­si­bil­i­ty of rec­om­mend­ing a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. Republican Representative Kevin McDugle (pic­tured) called for the meet­ing and is a long­time sup­port­er of the death penal­ty. He spoke of his increas­ing con­cern regard­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son, par­tic­u­lar­ly cit­ing the case of Richard Glossip, who has long main­tained his inno­cence. At the meet­ing, Rep. McDugle told his col­leagues that there are cas­es right now… [of]…

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Oct 12, 2023

Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: China, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Vietnam

October 10, 2023 marked the 21st World Day Against the Death Penalty. Regarding this year’s theme, The Death Penalty, an Irreversible Torture,” Raphaël Chenuil Hazan, exec­u­tive direc­tor of France-based abo­li­tion­ist group EPCM, said Today, we no longer need to demon­strate to any­one that the death penal­ty is a sophis­ti­cat­ed form of tor­ture, both in the phase of sen­tenc­ing or inves­ti­ga­tion (where phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal tor­ture is often used to obtain con­fes­sions), where the ele­ments of a fair tri­al are often unfor­tu­nate­ly not met, and dur­ing the psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly unbear­able wait for…

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Oct 10, 2023

French Embassy Hosts Exhibit Featuring Former Death Row Prisoners’ Artwork to Raise Awareness

On October 10, 2023, the Embassy of France in Washington, D.C. will host open­ing night of C’est la vie? Restoring Awareness on Capital Punishment through Art,’ in con­junc­tion with sev­er­al oth­er mem­bers of the European Union. The event will fea­ture the work of death row inmates, and some of whose sen­tences have been over­turned, and a dis­cus­sion on the influ­ence that art has had on their lives.” With the European Union Delegation, Witness to Innocence, and Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort, the French Embassy, along with the embassies of…

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Oct 06, 2023

New Details Emerge Surrounding Federal Executions Under Trump Administration

A recent arti­cle by Associated Press jour­nal­ist Michael Tarm reports new details about the thir­teen fed­er­al exe­cu­tions that took place in 20192020, includ­ing last-minute clemen­cy appeals for death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers like Brandon Bernard. Mr. Tarm wit­nessed ten of the exe­cu­tions and spoke with a num­ber of indi­vid­u­als who were involved in the process for his sto­ry. As a result of these inter­views, he says that the fuller pic­ture that has emerged shows that offi­cials cut cor­ners and relied on a pli­ant Supreme Court to get the exe­cu­tions done, even…

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Oct 05, 2023

World Psychiatric Association Releases Report Opposing the Death Penalty for People with Mental Illness or Development and Intellectual Disabilities

In July 2023, the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) released its report and posi­tion state­ment on men­tal health and the death penal­ty. The issues addressed in the report include: the impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty on pris­on­ers with men­tal ill­ness or devel­op­men­tal and intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties, the over­rep­re­sen­ta­tion of death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers who have been socioe­co­nom­i­cal­ly mar­gin­al­ized, and the role of psy­chi­a­trists in death penal­ty cases. 

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Oct 04, 2023

LA District Attorney Won’t Pursue the Death Penalty Because it Doesn’t Serve as a Deterrent” and Does Not Bring People Back”

On September 26, 2023, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced that he would not seek the death penal­ty in the case of slain Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer. If I thought that the death penal­ty was going to stop peo­ple from com­mit­ting bru­tal mur­ders, I would seek it. But we know that it won’t,” said Gascón at a news con­fer­ence, The real­i­ty is that the death penal­ty doesn’t serve as a deter­rent, and the death penal­ty does not bring peo­ple back. …What I can assure you is that we’re…

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Oct 03, 2023

Analysis Shows Supreme Court’s Changing View of Death Penalty Cases

A recent analy­sis by Bloomberg Law con­clud­ed that death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers have few­er avenues to relief at the Supreme Court than ever before. Bloomberg iden­ti­fied 270 emer­gency requests to stay exe­cu­tions since 2013 and found that the Court agreed to block an exe­cu­tion just 11 times. Since 2020, when the Court shift­ed to a 6 – 3 con­ser­v­a­tive major­i­ty fol­low­ing the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the appoint­ment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Court has grant­ed just two stays of exe­cu­tion. One, for John Henry Ramirez, chal­lenged not the execution…

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