Publications & Testimony

Charles Hoffman, an assis­tant defend­er in the Office of the Illinois State Appellate Defender, recent­ly wrote an op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times, mark­ing a year since the death penal­ty was repealed in Illinois. Hoffman, who has argued more than 30 death penal­ty cas­es before the Illinois Supreme Court, says that repeal­ing the death penal­ty was the right choice for the state: ​“The right­ness of that deci­sion is more…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in The Washington Post high­light­ed ongo­ing prob­lems with Maryland​’s death penal­ty despite leg­is­la­tion passed in 2009 meant to reform the sys­tem. According to the edi­to­r­i­al, ​“the legislature’s reform fixed noth­ing; if any­thing, it cod­i­fied a sys­tem even more arbi­trary than the one it replaced. Now the nature of the evi­dence, rather than the bar­bar­i­ty of the crime, is the crit­i­cal fac­tor. So a mur­der con­vic­tion based on DNA evidence…

On March 5, the U.S. Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly ruled that California inmate Kenneth Clair can­not have his con­vic­tion over­turned because he dis­agreed with the defense strat­e­gy used by his attor­neys. Clair was rep­re­sent­ed by court-appoint­ed attor­neys because he could not afford to hire his own. The dis­pute arose after Clair com­plained his attor­neys were ignor­ing evi­dence found by the pros­e­cu­tion that might prove his inno­cence. In 2005, he filed…

Today, in lieu of a news update, we are mak­ing a spe­cial request of our read­ers. In order to con­tin­ue our efforts to pro­vide the most com­pre­hen­sive, up-to-date infor­ma­tion on the death penal­ty, we need your help. Please con­sid­er mak­ing a con­tri­bu­tion to this impor­tant work. Whether you are an edu­ca­tor, an attor­ney, a jour­nal­ist, or a con­cerned cit­i­zen, you may have found val­ue in the infor­ma­tion we pro­vide. By donat­ing today, you help DPIC’s work…

The American Bar Association has released a report on Missouri​’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem after a two-year study of the state’s death penal­ty. The study was con­duct­ed by legal experts, includ­ing for­mer and cur­rent judges, lawyers, and law pro­fes­sors. Douglas Copeland, a mem­ber of the assess­ment team and for­mer pres­i­dent of the Missouri Bar, said ​“We iden­ti­fied sub­stan­tial prob­lems with the death penal­ty in Missouri. Our group unan­i­mous­ly agreed there are key…

In 2009, Maryland passed leg­is­la­tion that imposed new require­ments for pros­e­cu­tors seek­ing the death penal­ty. A recent report pre­sent­ed to the Maryland General Assembly by promi­nent attor­neys, legal experts and law pro­fes­sors ana­lyzes the 2009 law three years after its pas­sage, high­light­ing its effects on the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem. According to the report, the 2009 law exac­er­bat­ed a sig­nif­i­cant set of prob­lems with the state’s death penal­ty, including…

An Op-Ed signed by eleven cur­rent and for­mer Kentucky pros­e­cu­tors calls for reforms to Kentucky’s death penal­ty, in light of the recent report issued by the American Bar Association. The ABA report was released in December after a two-year study of fair­ness and accu­ra­cy in cap­i­tal cas­es in Kentucky. The pros­e­cu­tors cite Kentucky’s ​“unac­cept­able” 60% error rate in death sen­tenc­ing, say­ing ​“As a mat­ter of basic fair­ness, we must pause to…

The Georgia Supreme Court recent­ly warned Gwinnett County offi­cials that time to try the mur­der case of Khahn Dinh Phan is run­ning out. Phan had peti­tioned the court to dis­miss his charges due to the state’s inabil­i­ty to fund his defense and the vio­la­tion of his right to a speedy tri­al. His case has not been brought to tri­al in near­ly sev­en years, part­ly because of Georgia’s finan­cial­ly strained indi­gent defense sys­tem. Attorneys for Phan, who were hired by…

A recent op-ed writ­ten by retired Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Pascal F. Calogero Jr. high­lights the state’s his­to­ry of vio­lat­ing the U.S. Supreme Court​’s rul­ing in Brady v. Maryland. According to this rul­ing, pros­e­cu­tors are required to dis­close evi­dence favor­able to the defense, and that fail­ure to do so vio­lates the defendant’s right to due process. Calogero cit­ed a report by the Innocence Project New Orleans which found that favorable…

A case test­ing new death penal­ty statutes in Maryland has recent­ly con­clud­ed. The new statutes lim­it­ed when the death penal­ty could be sought to cas­es of first degree mur­der in which there is DNA or oth­er bio­log­i­cal evi­dence link­ing the defen­dant to a mur­der, a video-taped con­fes­sion by the defen­dant, or a video link­ing the defen­dant to the mur­der. Lee Edward Stephens, who was con­vict­ed of the fatal stab­bing of Cpl. David McGuinn, was spared…