Publications & Testimony

No new death sen­tences were imposed in North Carolina in 2012, mark­ing the first time since 1977 that this has occurred. The state had a record-low of four cap­i­tal tri­als in 2012. Thomas Maher, exec­u­tive direc­tor of North Carolina’s Indigent Defense Services, said, ​“In some ways, it’s a mile­stone. In oth­er ways, it’s part of a trend.” In 2000, juries in the state presided at 57 cap­i­tal tri­als, ulti­mate­ly yield­ing 18 death sen­tences. In 2011, there were 12 cap­i­tal trials…

According to the 2012 American Values Survey con­duct­ed by the Public Religion Research Institute, Americans are now even­ly divid­ed on whether the death penal­ty or life with­out parole is the appro­pri­ate pun­ish­ment for mur­der, while Catholics more strong­ly favor life sen­tences. The September sur­vey found that 47% of respon­dents favored life with­out parole, while 46% opt­ed for the death penal­ty. The poll showed that life with­out parole was favored by Democrats (57%),…

On October 29, the U.S. Justice Department released the annu­al FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2011, indi­cat­ing that the nation­al mur­der rate dropped 1.5% from 2010. This decline occurred at a time when the use of the death penal­ty is also decreas­ing nation­al­ly. The Northeast region, which uses the death penal­ty the least, had the low­est mur­der rate of the 4 geo­graph­ic regions, and saw a 6.4% fur­ther decrease in its mur­der rate in 2011, the largest decrease of…

On November 6, 2012, California​’s Proposition 34, an ini­tia­tive to replace the death penal­ty with a sen­tence of life with­out parole, was nar­row­ly defeat­ed by a vote of 53% to 47%. Although the result means the death penal­ty will con­tin­ue in the state, the per­cent of vot­ers sup­port­ing repeal rep­re­sents a dra­mat­ic shift away from cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The ref­er­en­dum, which indi­cat­ed just more than half of vot­ers are in favor of keep­ing the death penal­ty, fol­lows a broad­er trend…

UPDATE: Execution stayed by fed­er­al court on Nov. 8 to allow time for appeal. Pennsylvania is plan­ning to use drugs in an upcom­ing exe­cu­tion that are not reg­u­lat­ed by the fed­er­al Food and Drug Administration but rather are made to order by a com­pound­ing phar­ma­cy. A com­pound­ing phar­ma­cy has been impli­cat­ed in the dead­ly menin­gi­tis out­break in the U.S. caused by con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed drugs. In Missouri, the Pharmacy Board test­ed claimed drug dosages from com­pound­ing phar­ma­cies from 2006…

Garry Allen is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in Oklahoma on November 6, the third date set for him this year. Allen’s exe­cu­tion has been stayed repeat­ed­ly due to ques­tions about his men­tal com­pe­tence. He has been diag­nosed with schiz­o­phre­nia as well as demen­tia caused by seizures, drug abuse, and a gun­shot wound to his head sus­tained dur­ing his arrest. In 2008, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board rec­om­mend­ed that his death sen­tence be com­mut­ed by a 4 – 1 vote.

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the Miami Herald applaud­ed a court deci­sion find­ing that the costs of rep­re­s­en­ing defen­dants in Florida death penal­ty cas­es should be kept sep­a­rate from the judges’ annu­al bud­get. A state judge held it would be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al to have judges mak­ing deci­sions about attor­neys’ fees when the mon­ey for such expens­es comes from the judges’ own resources. The edi­to­r­i­al stat­ed, ​“We depend on the court sys­tem to dis­pense jus­tice — peri­od. Not jus­tice on…

On October 29, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a death penal­ty case from Texas to deter­mine whether inmates there can raise claims of inad­e­quate tri­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion in fed­er­al court if they were effec­tive­ly pre­vent­ed from rais­ing such a claim in their state appeal by the fur­ther fail­ure of their appel­late lawyers. Lower courts con­sid­er­ing this issue have held that an ear­li­er Supreme Court rul­ing, Martinez v. Ryan (2012), which pro­vid­ed such a…

On October 23, the United Nations’ spe­cial rap­por­teur on tor­ture, Juan Mendez, told a UN General Assembly human rights com­mit­tee that coun­tries around the world are increas­ing­ly view­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as a form of tor­ture because of the severe men­tal and phys­i­cal pain it inflicts on those sen­tenced to…

The lat­est edi­tion of the edu­ca­tion­al text, The Death Penalty in a Nutshell by Victor Streib, is now avail­able. Prof. Streib presents the sub­stan­tive and pro­ce­dur­al law of cap­i­tal cas­es, along with its rel­e­vant his­to­ry, jurispru­dence and con­sti­tu­tion­al appli­ca­tions. Streib also address­es inter­na­tion­al issues, the com­plex role of defense coun­sel, the risk of sys­temic bias, and the poten­tial exe­cu­tion of inno­cent defen­dants. This new edi­tion pro­vides an analy­sis of…