Publications & Testimony

A new Rasmussen poll found that 57% of American adults sup­port the death penal­ty, down from 63% in the orga­ni­za­tion’s polls dat­ing from 2009. The poll found 26% of respon­dents opposed the death penal­ty, with 17% unde­cid­ed. Respondents were also asked whether they favored the death penal­ty for James Holmes if he is con­vict­ed of the mass shoot­ing at a movie the­ater in Aurora, Colorado. Just 55% said they believed Holmes should be…

A new book, Examining Wrongful Convictions: Stepping Back, Moving Forward, explores the caus­es and relat­ed issues behind the many wrong­ful con­vic­tions in the U.S. Compiled and edit­ed by four crim­i­nal jus­tice pro­fes­sors from the State University of New York, the text draws from U.S. and inter­na­tion­al sources. Prof. Dan Simon of the University of Southern California said,​”This book offers the most com­pre­hen­sive and insight­ful treat­ment of wrongful…

A group of con­ser­v­a­tive lead­ers has joined in an effort to save the life of Scott Panetti, a Texas death row inmate with a his­to­ry of severe men­tal ill­ness. Members include sev­er­al law enforce­ment offi­cials and notable con­ser­v­a­tives, such as Mark Earley – for­mer Attorney General of Virginia, Harold Stratten – for­mer Attorney General of New Mexico, David Keene – the Washington Times opin­ion edi­tor, James Miller III – director of…

A new book by Prof. Jeffrey Kirchmeier of the City University of New York exam­ines the recent his­to­ry of race and the death penal­ty in the U.S. The book uses the sto­ry of a Georgia death row inmate named Warren McCleskey, whose chal­lenge to the state’s death penal­ty went all the way to the Supreme Court. In 1987 the Court held (5 – 4) that his sta­tis­ti­cal evi­dence show­ing that Georgia’s system of…

Trial prepa­ra­tions in the death penal­ty pros­e­cu­tion of James Holmes in Colorado have already cost the state about $5.5 mil­lion, and the tri­al and like­ly appeals will add sig­nif­i­cant­ly more. Holmes is accused of the mass shoot­ing in a movie the­ater in Aurora. Most of the costs — $4.5 mil­lion — have come from the salaries of per­son­nel work­ing on the case, includ­ing the pros­e­cu­tors, defense attor­neys, the judge, inves­ti­ga­tors, and…

Even as exe­cu­tions have declined in the U.S., those being car­ried out often illus­trate seri­ous prob­lems that have plagued the death penal­ty for many years. Of the six exe­cu­tions January, two (in Florida and Oklahoma) involved a lethal injec­tion pro­to­col that is now under review by the U.S. Supreme Court. Georgia exe­cut­ed Andrew Brannan, a dec­o­rat­ed Vietnam War veteran with…

A recent law review arti­cle report­ed wide vari­a­tions among states in exempt­ing defen­dants with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty from the death penal­ty. Professor John Blume (l.) of Cornell Law School, along with three co-authors, ana­lyzed claims filed under the Supreme Court’s deci­sion in Atkins v. Virginia (2002) against exe­cut­ing defen­dants with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty (for­mer­ly,​“men­tal retar­da­tion”). Overall, from 2002 through 2013, only…

In light of the three botched exe­cu­tions that took place in 2014, the Washington Post pub­lished an edi­to­r­i­al urg­ing states not to drop​“a veil of secre­cy over exe­cu­tions.” In par­tic­u­lar, the edi­to­r­i­al board oppos­es a pro­posed law in Virginia, which,​“would make prac­ti­cal­ly every­thing about exe­cu­tions in Virginia a state secret — even the build­ing in which they take place. ”​“It’s hard to see the com­pelling need for that…

Seattle’s Mayor Ed Murray, all 9 mem­bers of the Seattle City Council, and City Attorney Pete Holmes signed a let­ter in sup­port of a bi-par­ti­san bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty in Washington. Tim Burgess (l.), the President of the City Council, is a for­mer police offi­cer and detec­tive. The joint let­ter said:​“There is no cred­i­ble evi­dence show­ing that the death penal­ty deters homi­cide or makes our com­mu­ni­ties safer. Instead, pursuing…

According to a new study prin­ci­pal­ly authored by Prof. Frank Baumgartner of the University of North Carolina, the death penal­ty is far more like­ly to be used if the under­ly­ing mur­der vic­tim was white rather than black. The study exam­ined every U.S. exe­cu­tion from 1976 – 2013 and found,​“The sin­gle most reli­able pre­dic­tor of whether a defen­dant in the United States will be exe­cut­ed is the race of the vic­tim.… Capital pun­ish­ment is very rarely used where the victim is…