Publications & Testimony

A report in the Salt Lake City Tribune takes a different view of the suggestion that there have been no botched executions by firing squad. From Hal Schindler, “Taylor’s Death Was Quick … But Some Weren’t So Lucky Executioner’s Song — a Utah Reprise,” in The Salt Lake City Tribune, January 28, 1996:* But on May 16, 1879, a lack of restraining straps resulted in the most bizarre, grotesque and horribly botched Utah execution on record. It was so disgraceful that one newspaper, the Ogden…

On March 6, several stakeholders in California’s death penalty system filed supportive briefs urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to uphold a District Court ruling that the state’s death penalty is unconstitutional. The 9^th Circuit is considering the state’s appeal in the case of Ernest Jones, whose death sentence was overturned by Judge Cormac Carney (pictured). In an amicus brief on behalf of Jones, Bethany Webb, whose sister was murdered in 2011, said, “California’s death…

UPDATE: The repeal bill unanimously passed out of the Judiciary Committee on Mar. 9. Earlier: At a Nebraska legislative hearing on March 4, dozens of people testified in favor of abolishing the death penalty, including representatives from families of murder victims, from law enforcement, the judiciary, and Nebraska Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty. Among the co-sponsors of the bill to replace the death penalty with life without parole are seven Republican legislators. Jim…

In an unusual joint editorial on March 5, four national Catholic publications called for an end to the death penalty in the U.S. The editors of America, National Catholic Register, National Catholic Reporter, and Our Sunday Visitor urged “the readers of our diverse publications and the whole U.S. Catholic community and all people of faith to stand with us and say, ‘Capital punishment must end.’” Citing opposition to the death penalty in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and statements by…

Terence Inch, a former police commissioner in Hellam Township, Pennsylvania, recently wrote in support of Gov. Tom Wolf’s moratorium on executions and pointed to the mistakes that can happen in high-profile crimes: “In the aftermath of a brutal homicide, particularly one involving multiple victims or children, there is enormous pressure on law enforcement to solve the case and to solve it quickly…In the rush to solve these high profile cases it is easy to make mistakes, or to ignore evidence…

Midland County, Texas, District Attorney Teresa Clingman (pictured) recently accepted a sentence of life without parole rather than seeking the death penalty for Dan Higgins, a man who pled guilty to killing a Midland County Sheriff’s Deputy. Clingman’s decision was part of a larger trend of prosecutors choosing life without parole even for the most serious crimes. West Texas A&M criminology professor and former prison warden Keith Price said, “Capital death has so many requirements — it’s so…

The execution of Kelly Gissendaner was postponed just hours before it was scheduled to take place on March 2, after correctional officials in Georgia became concerned that the lethal injection chemicals appeared cloudy. “The Department of Corrections immediately consulted with a pharmacist, and in an abundance of caution, Inmate Gissendaner’s execution has been postponed,” the Department of Corrections said in a statement. Georgia is one of several states that have turned to compounding…

A February 2015 study by the Brennan Center for Justice examined several possible explanations for the dramatic drop in crime in the U.S. in the 1990s and 2000s. Among the theories studied was use of the death penalty, which the report found had no effect on the decline in crime. The authors explained, “Empirically, capital punishment is too infrequent to have a measureable effect on the crime drop. Criminologically, the existence and use of the death penalty may not even create the deterrent…

Several state legislatures have recently taken action on bills related to capital punishment. In Arkansas, a bill to abolish the death penalty passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a voice vote. Bill sponsor Sen. David Burnett, a former prosecutor and judge who both sought and imposed the death penalty, said, “It’s no longer a deterrent. It’s a punishment that’s actually broken. It doesn’t work. And it costs a huge amount of money to try and prosecute those cases.” Arkansas last carried out…