Publications & Testimony

A recent law review arti­cle by Professors Carol and Jordan Steiker describes how the Supreme Court’s attempt to close­ly reg­u­late the death penal­ty has led instead to more unpre­dictabil­i­ty in its prac­tice, espe­cial­ly with exe­cu­tions. Writing in the Southern California Law Review, the Steikers, of Harvard Law School and the University of Texas Law School respec­tive­ly, note that, “[T]he shape of con­tem­po­rary death penal­ty prac­tice is in many respects less regular than…

UPDATE: Middleton was exe­cut­ed on July 16, after the U.S. Court of Appeals lift­ed his stay. On July 15, a fed­er­al judge in Missouri stayed the exe­cu­tion of John Middleton, less than 24 hours before it was to occur. The judge was con­cerned that Middleton might be men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent, and hence inel­i­gi­ble for exe­cu­tion: ​“Middleton has pro­vid­ed evi­dence that he has been diag­nosed with a vari­ety of men­tal-health dis­or­ders and has received a…

A recent poll of 1,600 Russians found that only 52% sup­port the death penal­ty, a sharp decline from 2002, when 73% said they sup­port­ed it. Two years ago, 61% were in favor of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Russia cur­rent­ly has a mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty that was put in place in 1996 by President Yeltsin, short­ly before Russia signed a rel­e­vant pro­to­col of the European Convention on Human Rights. Russia’s high court has ruled that even death sen­tences can­not be handed down.

On July 9, just one day before he was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed, Tommy Lee Waldrip was grant­ed clemen­cy by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles. Waldrip will now serve a sen­tence of life with­out parole. Although the Board did not give a rea­son for its deci­sion, one of the issues raised in the case was the dis­pro­por­tion­al­i­ty of Waldrip’s sen­tence com­pared to that of his co-defen­dants. Three men were involved in the mur­der that sent Waldrip to death row, but…

According to a recent op-ed about China in the New York Times, the world leader in exe­cu­tions is hav­ing sec­ond thoughts about the death penal­ty. Liu Renwen, a legal schol­ar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the annu­al num­ber of exe­cu­tions in China dropped by half from 2007 to 2011, as more offend­ers were giv­en ​“sus­pend­ed death sen­tences,” which are gen­er­al­ly reduced to life sen­tences. According to a 2008 poll in three provinces, pub­lic sup­port for the…

Questioning Capital Punishment, a new book by James R. Acker, a pro­fes­sor of crim­i­nal jus­tice at the University at Albany, pro­vides a com­pre­hen­sive overview of the death penal­ty in America. With a basis in court deci­sions and research stud­ies, the book cov­ers all the key issues and the argu­ments for and against cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Chapters are devot­ed to deter­rence, sen­tenc­ing cri­te­ria, racial dis­crim­i­na­tion, and inno­cence, among oth­er top­ics. In review­ing the book,…

The State Bar of Texas has found ​“just cause” to pur­sue dis­ci­pli­nary action against pros­e­cu­tor Charles J. Sebesta, whose con­duct in the tri­al of Anthony Graves (pic­tured) result­ed in a wrong­ful con­vic­tion and death sen­tence. Sebesta, the District Attorney of Burleson County, did not inform Graves’ attor­neys that the main wit­ness against Graves had con­fessed to the crime. Graves spent over 18 years in prison, 12 of them on death row, before being exonerated in…

The lat­est edi­tion of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s Death Row USA showed a con­tin­u­ing decline in the num­ber of peo­ple on death rows across the coun­try. As of January 1, 2014, there were 3,070 inmates on death row, a decrease of 55 from one year ear­li­er. California con­tin­ued to have the largest death row, with 742 inmates. Since 2000, the nation­al death row pop­u­la­tion has decreased by 16%. Texas, which had the sec­ond largest death…

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon recent­ly called on all nations to take con­crete steps toward end­ing the death penal­ty. In his open­ing remarks at an event co-spon­sored by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Ban said, ​“Together, we can final­ly end this cru­el and inhu­mane prac­tice every­where around the world.” He not­ed that ​“more than four out of five coun­tries — an esti­mat­ed 160 Member States — have either abol­ished the death penal­ty or do not practice it.”…

The the­o­ry of the mod­ern death penal­ty is that it is to be reserved for the ​“worst of the worst” offend­ers. In 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court deter­mined (Roper v. Simmons) that those under age 18 at the time of their crime were less cul­pa­ble than old­er defen­dants and should be exclud­ed from the pos­si­bil­i­ty of exe­cu­tion. However, a recent paper by Hollis Whitson (l.) argued that sci­en­tif­ic research on old­er ado­les­cents implied that the Court’s analy­sis should also apply…