Publications & Testimony

On May 12, the editorial board of USA Today affirmed its opposition to the death penalty in an editorial urging that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev be sentenced to life without parole, rather than the death penalty, for his role in the Boston marathon bombing. “Laws aren’t written for a single individual, and the death penalty applies to many people,” the editorial said. “Tsarnaev and other infamous defendants … demonstrate the penalty’s arbitrary nature. While Tsarnaev has a superb legal team, most…

Two prominent Georgians, former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher (pictured, l.), and David J. Burge (pictured, r.), the Chairman of Georgia’s 5^th Congressional District Republican Party, have recently voiced their opposition to the death penalty. Justice Fletcher voted to uphold numerous death sentences during his 15 years on Georgia’s highest court. Since retiring from the Court in 2005, his views have changed. “With wisdom gained over the past 10 years, I am now convinced…

A recent editorial in The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) has criticized legislative efforts to restart North Carolina’s death penalty as “retrogressive” and “macabre.” The editorial opposes a bill that would allow executions to resume in North Carolina by “expanding the list of medical personnel who can monitor executions.” In 2007, the North Carolina Medical Board said that doctor participation in executions violates professional ethics, effectively blocking any doctors from participating in…

Harris County (Houston), Texas, has executed more men and women than any other county in the United States, but a recent poll shows that a strong majority of its residents now support alternative sentences. A report by the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University found that only 28% of respondents in Harris County prefer the death penalty to life without parole as punishment for first-degree murder. The poll also found that overall support for the death penalty was at a 20-year…

Today, DPIC is posting the first item in a new series: “50 Facts About the Death Penalty.” Each weekday for the next 10 weeks, we will share a short but significant fact about capital punishment. These items, which have accompanying images, will cover topics including innocence, public opinion, deterrence, race, and more. This series is intended as a resource for anyone looking to learn more about the death penalty. Each of the individual 50 Facts is accompanied by a link to a source that…

Calling the death penalty “an instrument of imperfect justice,” Governor Jack Markell (pictured) of Delaware announced on May 7 that he will sign the death penalty repeal bill under consideration in the state legislature if the bill reaches his desk. The Delaware Senate passed repeal in April by a vote of 11 – 9. The House Judiciary Committee is expected to hold a hearing soon. Markell had not previously taken a stance on abolishing the death penalty. Upon announcing his decision, he said, “This…

The week of the 25^th anniversary of Florida’s gruesome botched electric chair execution of Jesse Tafero (pictured), the Tennessee Supreme Court began hearing a challenge to the administration of a state law that would resurrect the use of that State’s electric chair if lethal injection drugs are unavailable. On May 6, 2015, the Tennessee justices heard argument on death-row inmates’ right to know which method of execution will be used in their cases. The Justices voiced concerns about the…

In an interview with Salon, Anthony Ray Hinton (pictured, l.), the 152^nd death row exoneree, spoke about his wrongful conviction and spending 30 years on Alabama’s death row for a crime he did not commit. “They had every intention of executing an innocent man,” Hinton said. “If you’re poor and black you don’t stand a chance.” Hinton spoke about the inadequate representation he received at his trial: “My ballistics expert was blind in one eye. He was paid $500. It came down to, ‘Who do you…

The number of people sentenced to death in Virginia has plummeted from 40 in the years 1998 – 2005 to only 6 from 2006 through April 2015. A recent study suggests that improvements in capital representation in the state may have played a significant role in that dramatic change. In 2004, Virginia established four regional capital defender offices, which are completely devoted to handling death penalty cases. The year before the defender offices opened, Virginia juries imposed 6 death sentences…

On April 21, 2015, Oktibbeha County (Mississippi) District Attorney Forrest Allgood announced that he would drop charges against death row inmate Willie Manning. In February, the Mississippi Supreme court granted Manning a new trial, saying that key evidence was withheld. Justice Michael K. Randolph wrote, “The State violated Manning’s due-process rights by failing to provide favorable, material evidence.” A witness testified that he saw Manning enter the victims’ apartment, but police records…