Publications & Testimony

Use of the death penalty in California has declined in recent years. There have been no executions in six years, and the number of death sentences in 2011 dropped sharply from previous years. District Attorney Mark Peterson of Contra Costa County said his office tries to be smart on crime rather than automatically seeking death. “People here want us to be tough on crime, but they want us to be smart on crime,” he said. “Even though we might personally believe a defendant deserves the death…

On August 1, Delma Banks Jr., one of the longest serving inmates in Texas death-penalty history, received a life sentence and will be eligible for parole in 2024 under a plea agreement with prosecutors. Banks was convicted by an all-white jury of a 1980 murder, but there were no witnesses to the killing and no physical evidence linking Banks to it. The prosecution’s case relied largely on the testimony of two informants, both admitted drug users. In 1999, almost 20 years after the trial, Banks’…

Joseph Ard, who spent 11 years on South Carolina’s death row and a total of 19 years in confinement, was freed from prison on July 31. Ard was sentenced to death for the 1993 shooting of his pregnant girlfriend. After his conviction, new lawyers unearthed evidence that corroborated Ard’s claim that the shooting was accidental, resulting from a struggle with his girlfriend over a gun. Ard was granted a re-trial in 2007, and his lawyers presented scientific testimony that his girlfriend had…

Ronald Smith (pictured) is one of two Canadian citizens on death row in the United States. Smith is facing execution in Montana for the kidnapping and murder of two members of the Blackfeet Nation thirty years ago. Smith’s co-defendant, Rodney Munro, pleaded guilty to aggravated kidnapping and was returned to Canada and released from jail in 1998. Munro credits Smith for saving his life, saying that he was given a plea deal and released because Smith admitted to the murders. Carmen Blackburn…

Despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ban on the death penalty for defendants with mental retardation, Texas is planning to execute Marvin Wilson on August 7. Wilson has an IQ of 61 and adaptive functioning levels even lower; the only board-certified expert to evaluate Mr. Wilson concluded he has mental retardation (now known as intellectual disability). Wilson struggled in school, and dropped out after the 10^th grade. According to experts who assessed his mental health, Wilson continues to be…

In a recent op-ed, Tracie Olson, the Yolo County Public Defender, explained why California’s death penalty could be replaced with more cost-efficient and less risky alternatives. Olson listed the death penalty’s high costs and risks of wrongful executions as reasons why alternatives to the death penalty would be more beneficial to the state’s citizens. Olson cited a 2011 study that found the death penalty has cost the state over $4 billion since 1978, and that capital cases cost 10 – 20 times…

New information on foreign nationals facing the death penalty in the U.S. is now available on DPIC’s Foreign Nationals page. This page provides background information on citizens from other countries who have been sentenced to death in various states and under the federal system. The list includes information on whether these defendants were informed of their consular rights under the Vienna Convention, which the U.S. has ratified and depends upon to protect its citizens when they travel…

On July 24, a Texas county judge declined to order a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether Marcus Druery is competent to be executed on August 1. Earlier this month, Druery’s attorneys requested a full investigation of his mental status, arguing he hears voices, believes he is being poisoned with feces-spiked food, and lacks the understanding of his legal situation required under the constitution for execution. Reports by mental health officials at the University of Texas show that Druery…

A new electronic book by former journalist Peter Rooney offers an in-depth look at the case of Joseph Burrows, who was exonerated from Illinois’s death row in 1996. In Die Free: A True Story of Murder, Betrayal and Miscarried Justice, Rooney explains how Burrows was sentenced to death for the murder of William Dulin based on snitch testimony. He was convicted primarily on the word of Gayle Potter, who recanted her testimony eight years later and admitted to committing the crime herself.