Publications & Testimony

On April 15, the Texas Forensic Science Commission rec­om­mend­ed more edu­ca­tion and train­ing for fire inves­ti­ga­tors fol­low­ing its review of the con­tro­ver­sial case of Cameron Todd Willingham (pic­tured), who was exe­cut­ed in 2004 for set­ting the fire that killed his three daugh­ters. The Commission made 16 rec­om­men­da­tions for inves­ti­ga­tors, lawyers and law­mak­ers. It did not, how­ev­er, decide whether arson investigators in…

“Legacy of Violence: Lynch Mobs and Executions in Minnesota,” a book by John D. Bessler (University of Minnesota Press, 2003), exam­ines the his­to­ry of ille­gal and state-sanc­­tioned exe­cu­tions in Minnesota, one of twelve states that cur­rent­ly does not have the death penal­ty. The book is time­ly in that the cur­rent gov­er­nor, Tim Pawlenty, has pro­posed rein­stat­ing the death penal­ty, which was abol­ished in 1911. The book includes detailed per­son­al accounts from those who were…

Minnesota Senator Tom Neuville, the lead­ing Republican com­mit­tee mem­ber on the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee, says he will oppose Governor Tim Pawlenty’s efforts to rein­state death penal­ty. Neuville’s basic oppo­si­tion is moral:​“If we solve vio­lence by becom­ing vio­lent our­selves, we become dimin­ished.” Neuville, a for­mer death penal­ty sup­port­er whose reex­am­i­na­tion of his pro-life beliefs led him to change his mind on the issue, feels that many of…

A Virginia judge ruled that pros­e­cu­tors may not seek the death penal­ty against a Vietnamese man accused of mur­der­ing two peo­ple because police vio­lat­ed the man’s rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by not inform­ing him that he could con­tact his coun­try’s con­sulate. “[T]he duty to give notice is absolute.… [T]he idea that the state can com­plete­ly ignore its treaty oblig­a­tions with­out con­se­quence essen­tial­ly oblit­er­ates the pur­pose for which the…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…