Publications & Testimony

Jerry Martin (pic­tured, r.) was exe­cut­ed in Texas on December 3 for killing a cor­rec­tion­al offi­cer dur­ing an escape attempt in 2007. Meanwhile, John Falk (l.), who also par­tic­i­pat­ed in the escape and was report­ed­ly dri­ving the car that struck and killed the offi­cer, has not even been con­vict­ed six years after the crime. Falk’s orig­i­nal tri­al was declared a mis­tri­al due to prob­lems with the jury instruc­tions, and it is pos­silbe another trial…

In an op-ed in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tennessean Drew Johnson evoked con­ser­v­a­tives’ inten­tions to ​“pro­tect inno­cent life, pro­mote finan­cial respon­si­bil­i­ty and sup­port gov­ern­ment pro­grams that real­ly work” in crit­i­ciz­ing the death penal­ty. Johnson, a Senior Fellow at Taxpayers Protection Alliance and founder of the Beacon Center of Tennessee, cit­ed the many exon­er­a­tions from death row as anoth­er rea­son to chal­lenge cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment: ​“Life is too precious to…

In a new report released on December 3, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) called for police depart­ments to adopt new guide­lines to reduce the num­ber of wrong­ful con­vic­tions. The chiefs’ rec­om­men­da­tions include reforms of line­up pro­ce­dures, video­tap­ing of wit­ness inter­views, and for­mal­iz­ing the review of inno­cence claims. The IACP worked with the Justice Department and the Innocence Project to iden­ti­fy ways to reduce poten­tial sources of error and bias.

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the Dallas Morning News high­light­ed the voic­es of promi­nent con­ser­v­a­tives who now oppose cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, includ­ing for­mer Texas Congressman Ron Paul and con­ser­v­a­tive polit­i­cal leader Richard Viguerie. The paper not­ed the new part­ner­ship between the stu­dent-cen­tered orga­ni­za­tion Young Americans for Liberty and Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. The editorial…

Radley Balko, writ­ing in the Huffington Post, has exam­ined more close­ly some of the coun­ties iden­ti­fied in DPIC’s recent report, The 2% Death Penalty, as using the death penal­ty the most. Balko found that many of those high-use coun­ties have a pat­tern of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct and oth­er prob­lems. For exam­ple, Philadelphia County has sent more inmates to death row than any oth­er coun­ty in Pennsylvania. However, a study of crim­i­nal cases overturned…

Julia Bates has been the lead pros­e­cu­tor in Lucas County, Ohio, since 1997. Although com­mit­ted to fol­low­ing the law, she also believes it is time to repeal cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state. She said death penal­ty cas­es are ​“tor­tur­ous” for those involved, includ­ing judges, jurors, pros­e­cu­tors, defense attor­neys, and vic­tims’ fam­i­lies, who are sub­ject­ed to years of appeals. ​“It just seems there ought to be a bet­ter way,” Mrs. Bates said. Capital…

On November 21, the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles unan­i­mous­ly vot­ed to posthu­mous­ly par­don Charles Weems, Andy Wright, and Haywood Patterson, three of the nine ​“Scottsboro Boys,” a group of black teenagers who were charged in 1931 of rap­ing two white women. Eight of the nine defen­dants, includ­ing the three who were recent­ly par­doned, were orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced to death. The racial injus­tice of the case sparked protests and two U.S. Supreme Court…

Jeff Gerritt is the Deputy Editor of the Toledo Blade, a paper which has sup­port­ed Ohio​’s death penal­ty for years. Disagreeing with the paper’s Editor, Gerritt called for repeal of the death penal­ty in the state, not­ing the risk of exe­cut­ing the inno­cent, ​“Wrongly con­vict­ing any­one con­sti­tutes a hor­ri­ble injus­tice, but exe­cut­ing the wrong per­son elim­i­nates any chance of revers­ing the error. Nationwide, more than 140 peo­ple await­ing exe­cu­tion have been exonerated.

In a 6 – 3 deci­sion on November 20, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied a request from death row inmate Duane Buck for a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing, despite the fact that racial­ly prej­u­di­cial state­ments had been made dur­ing his tri­al. While the jury was being asked to con­sid­er if Buck would be a future dan­ger to soci­ety, a psy­chol­o­gist tes­ti­fied that African Americans com­mit a dis­pro­por­tion­ate num­ber of crim­i­nal offens­es. Buck’s case was one of…