Publications & Testimony

The Center for Constitutional Rights and the International Federation for Human Rights recently released an analysis of the death penalty in California and Louisiana. The report concluded that those states’ application of capital punishment “violates U.S. obligations under international human rights law to prevent and prohibit discrimination and torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.” Researchers conducted interviews with many of those involved in the legal system and examined data on…

A recent Gallup poll found the lowest level of support for the death penalty in America since 1972. Gallup’s October poll measured Americans’ abstract support at 60%, a 20-percentage point decline from 1994, when 80% of respondents were in favor of the death penalty for those convicted of murder. Support for the death penalty differed sharply among those who identified themselves with a political party: 81% of Republicans supported the death penalty, while only 47% of Democrats and 60% of…

Reginald Griffin, a former death row inmate from Missouri, became the 143^rd person in the U.S. to be exonerated and freed from death row since 1973, after the state dismissed all charges related to his death sentence on October 25. Griffin had been sentenced to death for the murder of a fellow inmate in 1983. His conviction was overturned in 2011 by the Missouri Supreme Court (Griffin v. Denney) because the state had withheld critical evidence. Griffin’s conviction relied on the testimony of…

In a four-part series on the conduct of prosecutors in capital cases, The Arizona Republic examined allegations by appellate attorneys that prosecutorial misconduct occurred in nearly half of the state’s capital cases since 2002. The study found that nearly half of the allegations were validated by the Arizona Supreme Court, though only two death sentences were vacated. The paper found there were seldom consequences to prosecutors for misconduct. Of all the allegations, only two resulted in…

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 the West remained about the same, while the…

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 featured speaker at the symposium, along with…

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 evidence that could finally prove he was not…

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 Oregon’s death penalty.” He noted that…

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 victim family member.

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. Freddie Lee Hall’s scores on three IQ tests…