Publications & Testimony

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…