Publications & Testimony

Chase Blasi is on the Board of the Kansas Young Republicans and pres­i­dent of the Colwich City Council. In a recent op-ed in the Witchita Eagle, Blasi chal­lenged the idea that ​“if you are con­ser­v­a­tive you must favor the death penal­ty.” Instead he not­ed, ​“repeal of the death penal­ty is an impor­tant step for pro­mot­ing a cul­ture of life. The death penal­ty is sim­ply not nec­es­sary to pro­tect life, giv­en that there are alter­na­tives such as life in prison with­out parole…

The Center for Constitutional Rights and the International Federation for Human Rights recent­ly released an analy­sis of the death penal­ty in California and Louisiana. The report con­clud­ed that those states’ appli­ca­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment ​“vio­lates U.S. oblig­a­tions under inter­na­tion­al human rights law to pre­vent and pro­hib­it dis­crim­i­na­tion and tor­ture, cru­el, inhu­man or degrad­ing treat­ment.” Researchers con­duct­ed inter­views with many of…

A recent Gallup poll found the low­est lev­el of sup­port for the death penal­ty in America since 1972. Gallup’s October poll mea­sured Americans’ abstract sup­port at 60%, a 20-per­cent­age point decline from 1994, when 80% of respon­dents were in favor of the death penal­ty for those con­vict­ed of mur­der. Support for the death penal­ty dif­fered sharply among those who iden­ti­fied them­selves with a polit­i­cal par­ty: 81% of Republicans sup­port­ed the death penal­ty, while only 47% of…

Reginald Griffin, a for­mer death row inmate from Missouri, became the 143^rd per­son in the U.S. to be exon­er­at­ed and freed from death row since 1973, after the state dis­missed all charges relat­ed to his death sen­tence on October 25. Griffin had been sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of a fel­low inmate in 1983. His con­vic­tion was over­turned in 2011 by the Missouri Supreme Court (Griffin v. Denney) because the state had with­held crit­i­cal evi­dence. Griffin’s…

In a four-part series on the con­duct of pros­e­cu­tors in cap­i­tal cas­es, The Arizona Republic exam­ined alle­ga­tions by appel­late attor­neys that pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct occurred in near­ly half of the state’s cap­i­tal cas­es since…

The U.S. Department of Justice recent­ly released its annu­al FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2012. The nation­al mur­der rate remained approx­i­mate­ly the same in 2012 as in 2011. The Northeast, the region with the fewest exe­cu­tions, had the low­est mur­der rate of any region, and its mur­der rate decreased 3.4% from the pre­vi­ous year. The South, which car­ries out the most exe­cu­tions of any region, again had the high­est mur­der rate in 2012. The mur­der rate in…

Two events in November will exam­ine the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty from a vari­ety of per­spec­tives. On November 12, the American Bar Association will host the National Symposium on the Modern Death Penalty at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The con­fer­ence will cul­mi­nate the ABA’s eight-year effort to ass­es the death penal­ty in var­i­ous states, using cri­te­ria for due process estab­lished by the ABA. Former President Jimmy Carter will be a…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the Akron Beacon Journal (Ohio) called for DNA test­ing in the death penal­ty case of Tyrone Noling. Noling has been on death row for 17 years. His con­vic­tion was based large­ly on the tes­ti­mo­ny of three friends who have since recant­ed their sto­ries, claim­ing they were coerced by the pros­e­cu­tion. No phys­i­cal evi­dence linked Noling to the crime, and he has passed a poly­graph test. Noling is request­ing the test­ing of additional…

Edwin J. Peterson, who served as the Chief Justice of Oregon​’s Supreme Court for many years, recent­ly rec­om­mend­ed end­ing the state’s death penal­ty. Judge Peterson vot­ed as a cit­i­zen to rein­state the death penal­ty in Oregon in 1978 and in 1984, but he now believes the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem is bro­ken: ​“We have an inef­fi­cient, inef­fec­tive, dys­func­tion­al sys­tem,” he said. ​“There is wide­spread dis­sat­is­fac­tion.… Our sys­tem has failed. Recognize it and repeal…

On October 24, New Hampshire state rep­re­sen­ta­tive Renny Cushing (pic­tured) will intro­duce a bill to repeal the state’s death penal­ty. In addi­tion to a bi-par­ti­san group of co-spon­sors, Cushing will be joined by Judge Walter Murphy – a for­mer chief jus­tice of the New Hampshire Superior Court and chair of the New Hampshire Death Penalty Study Commission; Ray Dodge – a for­mer police chief; Bishop Peter Libasci – of the Catholic Diocese of Manchester; and Nancy Filiault – a murder…