Publications & Testimony

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…

On October 21, the U.S. Supreme Court accept­ed a new case, Hall v. Florida (No. 12 – 10882), to deter­mine whether the Florida Supreme Court prop­er­ly upheld the death sen­tence of a man whose IQ is just above the state’s stan­dard for men­tal retar­da­tion. According to the state’s law, defen­dants with an IQ above 70 can­not be con­sid­ered intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled, even though most states use a broad­er def­i­n­i­tion and there is a mar­gin of error in such IQ tests.

Religious lead­ers from a vari­ety of faiths spoke about their reli­gious objec­tions to the death penal­ty at a recent meet­ing in Columbus, Ohio. The meet­ing includ­ed lead­ers from sev­er­al Christian denom­i­na­tions as well as Jewish lead­ers. Jack Chomsky, can­tor at Congregation Tifereth Israel, said he hopes more of his col­leagues will join him in speak­ing out about Jewish tra­di­tion, which oppos­es the enforce­ment of the death penal­ty. Jerald Freewalt, of the Office for Social…

Michael Morton (pic­tured), who was released after 25 years in prison for a crime he did not com­mit, and Barry Scheck, co-direc­tor of the Innocence Project, called for reforms in Texas’s clemen­cy process. In a recent op-ed in the Houston Chronicle, Morton and Scheck high­light­ed the case of Cameron Willingham, who was exe­cut­ed in 2004 despite seri­ous doubts about his guilt. According to the authors, it is now under­stood that inves­ti­ga­tors who believed that…

On October 16 the U.S. Supreme Court will hear argu­ments in Kansas v. Cheever. One of the key defense wit­ness­es in Scott Cheever’s death penal­ty tri­al tes­ti­fied that Cheever’s use of drugs impaired his judge­ment on the day of the crime. Prosecutors, in turn, called the physi­cian who per­formed Cheever’s court-man­dat­ed men­tal exam, and he tes­ti­fied that Cheever was aware of what he was doing when he com­mit­ted the crime, based on Cheever’s own…