Publications & Testimony

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of Timothy Foster, an African-American defendant who was sentenced to death by an all-white jury after Georgia prosecutors had struck every black prospective juror in his case. On May 26, the U.S. Supreme Court granted review in Foster v. Humphrey to determine whether the prosecution’s actions violated the Court’s 1986 decision in Batson v. Kentucky, which banned the practice of dismissing potential jurors on the basis of race. Foster challenged the…

In a discussion at the George Washington University School of Law, retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said the death penalty creates a higher risk of error than other criminal cases and is unfair, unnecessary, and a “terrible waste” of resources. Using the Boston marathon bomber trial as an example, Justice Stevens said jury selection procedures in capital cases produce juries who are “not representative of the community.” He said that, under these procedures, “most of the 75%” of…

DPIC’s offices are closed for Memorial Day. In place of our daily “What’s New” item, we are posting a video summary of the first ten items in our series, 50 Facts About the Death Penalty. (Click Read More at end of this post for the video.) We are sharing a new fact in the series daily on Twitter and on our 50 Facts webpage, where you can find additional background information. Follow our Facebook page for a weekly video summary of the new items. (See 50 Facts webpage.)

At age 6, Clifford O’Sullivan (pictured with his mother) testified in favor of a death sentence for the man who had killed his mother. That man, Mark Scott Thornton, is on California’s death row. Now, 20 years later, O’Sullivan says he believes Thornton’s life should be spared. When he took the witness stand during the sentencing phase of Thornton’s trial, O’Sullivan told the jury, “All I think is that what the bad man did to my mom should happen to him. It’s really sad for my family ‘cause she…

Conservative commentator George Will has decribed capital punishment in America as “withering away.” In his syndicated column in the Washington Post, Will outlines a conservative case against the death penalty, highlighting Nebraska’s recent legislative vote to repeal capital punishment. Writing that “exonerations of condemned prisoners and botched executions are dismayingly frequent,” Will lists three primary reasons why he believes conservatives should oppose capital punishment: “First, the…

Nebraska’s unicameral legislature passed a bill to repeal the state’s death penalty and replace it with a sentence of life without parole. On May 20, the bill passed its third and final round of debate on a 32 – 15 vote, receiving bipartisan support. Senator Al Davis said, “There are so many reasons why we need to eliminate the death penalty in Nebraska. It’s fundamentally unfair, a terrible mistake and bad justice.” Gov. Pete Ricketts has indicated that he will veto the bill, but a veto can be…

A report of the United Nations Human Rights Council issued on May 15 has urged the United States to end capital punishment. The report, produced as part of the United Nations’ periodic review of the human rights records of each of its member nations, identified capital punishment in the United States as a major human rights concern. At a hearing on the report on May 11, U.S. deputy assistant attorney general David Bitkower acknowledged that the death penalty is an issue of “extensive debate and…

A recent publication from Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation and an op-ed in the Kansas City Star highlight the views of Kansas murder victims’ families on capital punishment. In Voices of Kansas, 13 families that have been affected by murder share their experiences in the aftermath of a loved one’s murder and how that shaped their beliefs about the death penalty. Neely Goen, whose father, Conroy O’Brien, was killed while working as a Kansas State Trooper, said, “The death penalty…

The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective by Roger Hood and Carolyn Hoyle, now in its Fifth Edition, is “widely regarded as the leading authority on the death penalty in its international context.” The book explores the movement toward worldwide abolition of the death penalty, with an emphasis on international human right principles. It discusses issues including arbitrariness, innocence, and deterrence. Paul Craig, Professor of English Law at Oxford University, said of the fourth edition…

Two recent media reports reveal additional details of irregularities in Oklahoma’s administration and defense of its lethal injection procedures. A story in The Atlantic describes in detail the botched execution of Clayton Lockett and the failed attempts made by a paramedic and a doctor to insert the IV into Lockett’s veins. A Buzzfeed report asserts that Oklahoma’s brief to the Supreme Court in the lethal injection case, Glossip v. Gross, made misrepresentations about the state’s efforts to…