Publications & Testimony

The Texas Forensic Science Commission announced it will study pri­or crim­i­nal con­vic­tions to deter­mine whether mis­takes were made using dis­cred­it­ed foren­sic tes­ti­mo­ny. The Commission will employ DNA test­ing to review cas­es in which micro­scop­ic hair fibers were used to con­vict peo­ple of rape, mur­der, rob­bery, and oth­er crimes. It has recent­ly been estab­lished that it is impos­si­ble to match a hair under a micro­scope to a spe­cif­ic per­son. Forensic experts can make an…

As the start of the new school year approach­es, we want­ed to remind edu­ca­tors and stu­dents of the excel­lent free resources DPIC offers. Our col­lege cur­ricu­lum, Capital Punishment in Context, uses a case-study mod­el to intro­duce stu­dents to the death penal­ty sys­tem and allows them to access more in-depth research on a vari­ety of top­ics, such as inno­cence, race, and men­tal ill­ness. Each case includes rel­e­vant links to out­side resources, includ­ing schol­ar­ly arti­cles. Our…

A recent arti­cle in The Atlantic by Marc Bookman (pic­tured) shows how threats of the death penal­ty can con­tribute to false con­fes­sions. The piece recounts a Pennsylvania mur­der case in which two defen­dants, Russell Weinberger and Felix Rodriguez, admit­ted to a mur­der they did not com­mit, lead­ing to their impris­on­ment for over 21 years. Rodriguez described his inter­ro­ga­tion: ​“First they showed me pic­tures of the dead guy. I start­ed to cry. I said I…

On August 7, the Special Master assigned to review the case of Reginald Clemons (pic­tured) in Missouri announced that pros­e­cu­tors with­held evi­dence indi­cat­ing detec­tives beat Clemons into con­fess­ing to rape and mur­der that led to his death sen­tence. Clemons recant­ed the con­fes­sion, but a tape of it was played at tri­al and he was con­vict­ed in 1993. No phys­i­cal evi­dence linked him to the rape. Judge Michael Manners, who con­duct­ed spe­cial evi­den­tiary hear­ings on…

A new report by the London-based Death Penalty Project explores the use of manda­to­ry death sen­tenc­ing in Malaysia. In the U.S., the Supreme Court barred the use of manda­to­ry death sen­tences in 1976, hold­ing that judges and juries need­ed to con­sid­er the indi­vid­ual dif­fer­ences among defen­dants, out of respect for human dig­in­i­ty. (Woodson v. North Carolina, and oth­er opin­ions). DPP’s report found that the num­ber of exe­cu­tions car­ried out in Malaysia has…

On August 4, Ohio death row inmate Billy Slagle was found hanged in his prison cell, three days before he was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed. Slagle did not know that pros­e­cu­tors had recent­ly revealed that their office had been pre­pared to offer a plea deal to avoid a death sen­tence at the time of his tri­al 26 years ago. That deal was not con­veyed to Slagle by his attor­neys. This new infor­ma­tion was part of a request for a stay of exe­cu­tion sent to the Ohio Supreme…

On August 1, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced its remain­ing sup­ply of pen­to­bar­bi­tal, used for lethal injec­tions, expires in September, and it is unsure where to obtain more. The drug’s man­u­fac­tur­er, Lundbeck, Inc., has barred dis­tri­b­u­tion to states intend­ing to use the drug in…

Criminal cas­es in the U.S. Military are con­duct­ed in spe­cial courts and under laws that dif­fer from the rest of the coun­try’s jus­tice sys­tem. Executions in this sys­tem are extreme­ly rare. There have been no exe­cu­tions since 1961. ​“The mil­i­tary is a com­mu­ni­ty of sol­i­dar­i­ty, a broth­er­hood and sis­ter­hood, all to its own,” said Teresa Norris, a for­mer mil­i­tary defense lawyer who still rep­re­sents a sol­dier on death row. ​“There is a real reluc­tance to exe­cute fel­low sol­diers unless…

The fed­er­al death penal­ty is con­tro­ver­sial because it can be applied even in the 18 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico that have elect­ed not to have cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in their own law. Out of respect for the peo­ple of Rhode Island–a non-death penal­ty state – the gov­er­nor, Lincoln Chafee (pic­tured), resist­ed turn­ing over a defen­dant in 2011 to face the fed­er­al death penal­ty. The defen­dant, Jason Pleau, agreed to plead guilty to a series of…