Publications & Testimony

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,…

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,…

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…

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…

Alabama recent­ly set an exe­cu­tion date for Thomas Arthur (pic­tured), who was con­vict­ed of a mur­der that took place 30 years ago. Arthur has always main­tained his inno­cence, but has been denied access to DNA evi­dence that might lead to a dif­fer­ent ver­dict. As Andrew Cohen point­ed out in an inves­tiga­tive piece in The Atlantic, Arthur is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on March 29, despite the con­fes­sion of Bobby Ray Gilbert to the crime…

Testimony of Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center, before the Kentucky Standing Committee on Judiciary Hearings on the Costs of the Death Penalty (Frankfort, March…

A recent op-ed in the Litchfield (Connecticut) News high­lights con­cerns about the death penal­ty as expressed by mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­lies. Mary Healy and Jane Caron are social work pro­fes­sion­als who also expe­ri­enced a mur­der in their fam­i­lies. In their recent op-ed, they stat­ed that Connecticut’s death penal­ty does not suf­fi­cient­ly care for the needs of vic­tims:​“The prob­lem with the death penal­ty is that it main­tains a focus on the murderer…

On February 29, Arizona is sched­uled to exe­cute Robert Moorman, who was sen­tenced to death for a 1984 mur­der. Moorman’s rep­re­sen­ta­tives have said the crime was com­mit­ted after years of sex­u­al abuse by the defendant’s adop­tive moth­er, whom he then killed and dis­mem­bered her body. Moorman was diag­nosed with men­tal retar­da­tion and attend­ed spe­cial edu­ca­tion class­es while in pub­lic school. His first stay at a mental institution…

Craig Watkins (pic­tured), the dis­trict attor­ney of Dallas County, Texas, recent­ly called for a review of the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. Since becom­ing D.A. in 2007, Watkins has ini­ti­at­ed a con­vic­­tion-inte­gri­­ty unit to exam­ine crim­i­nal cas­es in the coun­ty. Since 2001, Dallas County has exon­er­at­ed 27 inmates, includ­ing 22 through DNA evi­dence, most dur­ing Watkins’s tenure. None of these inmates were from death row. Regarding…

On February 21 the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a U.S. Court of Appeals deci­sion grant­i­ng a retri­al to James Lambert, who had been con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1984 in Pennsylvania. Lambert appealed his con­vic­tion, claim­ing that pros­e­cu­tors nev­er dis­closed evi­dence iden­ti­fy­ing an addi­tion­al co-defen­­dant, in vio­la­tion of Brady v. Maryland. Lambert claimed this new evi­dence would have…