Publications & Testimony

Items: 3761 — 3770

Apr 20, 2011

IN MEMORIAM: Marie Deans, A Life of Commitment to Justice and Founder of Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation

On April 15, 2011, Marie McFadden Deans died in Charlottesville, Virginia. For three decades, Deans sought jus­tice for death row inmates who had no oth­er recourse and who had been poor­ly rep­re­sent­ed. Professor Todd Peppers of Roanoke College wrote in an op-ed about her life that she brought ​“basic con­di­tions of decen­cy to the men who inhab­it­ed Virginia’s death row,… refin[ed] the use of mit­i­ga­tion evi­dence in death penal­ty tri­als, [and] struggl[ed] to exonerate factually…

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Apr 19, 2011

States Engage in ​“Swap Club” to Obtain Lethal Injection Drugs

In what was described in the New York Times as a ​“legal­ly que­sion­able swap club,” states search­ing for a scarce exe­cu­tion drug have gone to great lengths to obtain sodi­um thiopen­tal for car­ry­ing out their death sen­tences. In Arkansas, a deputy direc­tor of the Department of Corrections revealed that states often shared their sup­ply of sodi­um thiopen­tal with each oth­er. Wendy Kelly, who has per­son­al­ly trav­eled to obtain drugs from oth­er states, said,…

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Apr 18, 2011

NEW RESOURCES: New Database for International Death Penalty

Northwestern University School of Law, in con­junc­tion with the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, has com­piled a new resource on the use of the death penal­ty in every coun­try around the world. This search­able data­base, www​.death​penal​ty​world​wide​.org, con­tains infor­ma­tion on each country’s death penal­ty sta­tus, meth­ods of exe­cu­tion, num­ber of exe­cu­tions, and crimes pun­ish­able by the death penal­ty. The data­base also includes demographic…

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Apr 15, 2011

Texas Psychologist Who Approved Defendants for Execution Barred from Future Work

The Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists recent­ly rep­ri­mand­ed and fined Dr. George Denkowski, a psy­chol­o­gist who exam­ined many death row inmates for intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties, includ­ing two who were sub­se­quent­ly exe­cut­ed. Despite using unsci­en­tif­ic meth­ods that have been sharply crit­i­cized by oth­er psy­chol­o­gists, Dr. Denkowski found 16 inmates qual­i­fied for exe­cu­tion. As part of a set­tle­ment, Dr. Denkowski agreed not to conduct intellectual…

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Apr 14, 2011

COSTS: Federal Government Spending Millions Pursuing Death Penalty for Inmate with Life Sentence

An expen­sive fed­er­al death penal­ty tri­al under way in New York illus­trates many of the con­cerns about such pros­e­cu­tions. New York is a state that no longer has its own death penal­ty. Nevertheless, the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment is seek­ing a death sen­tence for Vincent Basciano, who is already serv­ing life with­out parole. Because the death penal­ty is being sought, the case has already costs mil­lions of dol­lars and the final bill will like­ly be $10 mil­lion or more.

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Apr 13, 2011

Key Connecticut Committee Approves Death Penalty Repeal Bill

On April 12, the Connecticut leg­is­la­ture’s Judiciary Committee approved (26 – 17) a bill to repeal the death penal­ty for future crimes and replace the sen­tence with life with­out parole. Supporters of the bill said it would avoid the risk of wrong­ful exe­cu­tions and save tax­pay­ers the costs of lengthy tri­als and appeals. Both sup­port­ers and oppo­nents of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment agreed that the state’s cur­rent sys­tem is not work­ing. Sen. Eric Coleman said the state’s…

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Apr 12, 2011

BOOKS: ​“Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States”

A new book, ​“Queer (In)Justice” by Joey Mogul, Andrea Ritchie, and Kay Whitlock, explores the expe­ri­ences of les­bian, gay, bisex­u­al, and trans­gen­der peo­ple in America’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, and par­tic­u­lar­ly their inter­ac­tion with the death penal­ty sys­tem. The authors assert that pros­e­cu­tors have used defen­dants’ sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion or gen­der-non­con­form­ing appear­ance to obtain cap­i­tal con­vic­tions: ​“In cap­i­tal cas­es a pros­e­cu­tor must suc­cess­ful­ly under­take what should be a…

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Apr 11, 2011

OP-ED: ​“The Prosecution Rests, but I Can’t”

A recent op-ed in the New York Times by John Thompson (pic­tured, right) describes his anguish after being wrong­ly con­vict­ed, sen­tenced to death, and most recent­ly denied finan­cial com­pen­sa­tion in Louisiana. He spent 18 years in prison, includ­ing 14 on death row, because pros­e­cu­tors delib­er­ate­ly with­held evi­dence that could have led to his acquit­tal. Thompson wrote, ​“The pros­e­cu­tors involved in my two cas­es, from the…

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Apr 08, 2011

STUDIES: Victims’ Families React Negatively to Serving as Basis for Death Penalty

A recent study by Professors Thomas Mowen and Ryan Schroeder of the University of Louisville found that pub­lic sup­port for the death penal­ty has shift­ed away from tra­di­tion­al jus­ti­fi­ca­tions (such as its pur­port­ed deter­rent effect, its imag­ined cost-sav­ing val­ue, and its safe­guard of inno­cent lives), and has been replaced by ratio­nales of ret­ri­bu­tion and clo­sure on behalf of vic­tims’ fam­i­lies. According to the study, which was pub­lished in Western Criminology Review,…

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Apr 07, 2011

LETHAL INJECTION: Latest Foreign Supplier of Drugs for U.S. Executions Refuses to Continue

When the sole U.S. sup­pli­er of a drug used by all death penal­ty states announced it was halt­ing pro­duc­tion ear­li­er this year, many states turned to sources over­seas. In par­tic­u­lar, Nebraska obtained a large quan­ti­ty of the drug – sodi­um thiopen­tal – from a com­pa­ny in Mumbai, India. Now that com­pa­ny has announced it will no longer sup­ply the drug for use in lethal injec­tions. In a state­ment released to the media, Kayem Pharmaceutical Pvt. Ltd. said, ​“In view of…

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