Publications & Testimony

In the lat­est edi­tion of the Death Penalty Information Center’s pod­casts, we inter­view attor­ney Jennifer Whitfield (pic­tured) of Covington & Burling, who worked to secure the release of for­mer death row inmate Larry Smith in Alabama. Mr. Smith was sen­tenced to death in 1995 for a mur­der relat­ed to a rob­bery. His con­vic­tion hinged on a state­ment he made after 4 hours of inter­ro­ga­tion. In vio­la­tion of police guide­lines, his…

A new book by Professor Jody Lynee’ Madeira of the Indiana University School of Law fol­lows the after­math of the Oklahoma City bomb­ing to explore whether the fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims obtain clo­sure from an exe­cu­tion. In Killing McVeigh: The Death Penalty and the Myth of Closure, Prof. Madeira recounts her wide range of inter­views with those who expe­ri­enced this tragedy first-hand. Regarding the book, Professor Carol Steiker of Harvard said,​“Everyone…

According to a review by the Associated Press, at least one coun­ty in Ohio appears to be using the death penal­ty as a way of obtain­ing plea bar­gains. For exam­ple, the chief Prosecutor of Cuyahoga County (Ohio), Bill Mason, orig­i­nal­ly announced his intent to seek the death penal­ty against six men who were indict­ed days after a drug-relat­ed slay­ing in sub­ur­ban Cleveland. However, plea bar­gains were grant­ed in all of the cas­es, and four of the men…

A new video pre­pared with inter­na­tion­al sup­port dis­cuss­es the impor­tance of for­eign embassies lend­ing sup­port when cit­i­zens of their coun­tries face the death penal­ty in the United States. According to Ambassador Joao Vale de Almedia, Head of the European Union Delegation to the U.S.,​“Foreign nation­als are par­tic­u­lar­ly vul­ner­a­ble in death penal­ty cas­es. They’re most like­ly not to know the lan­guage per­fect­ly, and cer­tain­ly not know the way…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the Lincoln Journal Star of Nebraska con­clud­ed that expe­ri­ence with inac­cu­rate evi­dence from crime labs shows that the death penal­ty can­not be trust­ed in the tak­ing of life. The paper called for the repeal of the death penal­ty based on a case in which the state’s CSI direc­tor tam­pered with evi­dence in a mur­der case. Recently, the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld the conviction of…

An edi­to­r­i­al in the Baptist Standard, pub­lished in Texas, recent­ly called for repeal­ing the death penal­ty in the next leg­isla­tive ses­sion. Among the rea­sons cit­ed by the paper for end­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment were prin­ci­ples of reli­gious faith, the risk of exe­cut­ing inno­cent defen­dants, its inef­fec­tive­ness in deter­ring crime, the high costs of pros­e­cu­tion, and its unfair­ness in affect­ing the poor and peo­ple of color.

In one of the most com­pre­hen­sive inves­ti­ga­tions ever under­tak­en about the exe­cu­tion of a pos­si­bly inno­cent defen­dant, Professor James Liebman and oth­er researchers at Columbia University Law School have pub­lished a ground­break­ing report on the case of Carlos DeLuna (pic­tured), who was exe­cut­ed in Texas in 1989. This​“Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution” is being pub­lished today (May 15) in Columbia’s Human Rights Law…

UPDATE: Execution stayed by Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (May 14). Steven Staley (pic­tured) is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Texas on May 16, despite the like­li­hood that he would be deemed incom­pe­tent for exe­cu­tion if he was not being forcibly med­icat­ed under court order. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that it is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al to exe­cute an inmate who is men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent. In a non-death penal­ty con­text, the Court has also held…

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch urged Missouri to end its death penal­ty as the sys­tem has ground to a halt because of con­tro­ver­sies involv­ing its method of exe­cu­tion. On May 8, a fed­er­al appeals court declined to rule on a chal­lenge to the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col because the Department of Corrections could no longer obtain one of the three drugs spec­i­fied in the pro­to­col. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth…

Al Jazeera recent­ly released a video of an inter­view with for­mer Oklahoma death-row inmate Michael Selsor (pic­tured). Selsor was the most recent per­son exe­cut­ed in the U.S. and prob­a­bly the inmate who served the longest time between con­vic­tion and exe­cu­tion of any­one in U.S. his­to­ry. He was first sen­tenced to death in 1976 for mur­der and was impris­oned over 36 years pri­or to his exe­cu­tion on May 1, 2012.