Publications & Testimony

The Texas Criminal Jurisprudence Committee of the House of Representatives heard tes­ti­mo­ny on March 29 regard­ing HB 1641, a bill that would put a hold on exe­cu­tions while the death penal­ty was being stud­ied. Charles Terrell, for­mer Chairman of the state’s Department of Criminal Justice, sup­port­ed the mora­to­ri­um in a state­ment to the com­mit­tee, express­ing con­cerns about:​“fair­ness to those con­vict­ed on the lim­it­ed testimony of…

A new report issued by Amnesty International, Death Sentences and Executions 2010, shows a glob­al trend away from the use of the death penal­ty. According to the report, only four coun­tries in the G20 (rep­re­sent­ing the world’s major economies) car­ried out exe­cu­tions in 2010 (China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the U.S.), 36 of the 53 African Union mem­ber states are abo­li­tion­ist in law or in prac­tice, and only 21 of the 192 UN member states…

Gil Garcetti, the for­mer dis­trict attor­ney of Los Angeles who pur­sued numer­ous death sen­tences, recent­ly said California​’s death penal­ty is dys­func­tion­al and the resources spent on it should be divert­ed to more press­ing needs. In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Garcetti said the death penal­ty caus­es ongo­ing tor­ment to fam­i­ly mem­bers and friends of mur­der vic­tims:​“The liv­ing vic­tims of a particular…

Earlier in March, hear­ings were held in Connecticut before the House Judiciary Committee on a bill to replace the death penal­ty for future crimes with a sen­tence of life with­out parole. Many reli­gious lead­ers, schol­ars, for­mer death row inmates, and fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims fam­i­lies tes­ti­fied in favor of the bill. Catholic Bishop Peter Rosazza, retired aux­il­iary bish­op of the Archdiocese of Hartford, said,​“The death penal­ty dimin­ish­es us all. We…

A recent book by Sanaz Alasti,​“Cruel and Unusual Punishment: Comparative Perspective in International Conventions, the United States and Iran,” explores the ques­tion of what con­sti­tutes cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment on an inter­na­tion­al lev­el. The book reviews cur­rent prac­tices in both Iran and the United States, focus­ing on the death penal­ty and the harsh­ness of such prac­tices as cor­po­ral pun­ish­ment, long terms of impris­on­ment, and…

As Yakima County, Washington, faces the pos­si­bil­i­ty of its first death penal­ty tri­al since 1989, the dan­ger that the high cost of a cap­i­tal case could drain the coun­ty’s bud­get is a deep con­cern. Harold Delia, Yakima County court admin­is­tra­tive con­sul­tant ques­tioned the wis­dom of seek­ing the death penal­ty against a defen­dant recent­ly charged with mur­der,​“You real­ly have to won­der whether this real­ly makes sense when you look at…

On March 21, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal from death-row inmate Cory Maples (pic­tured), who is fac­ing exe­cu­tion because of a missed fil­ing dead­line in his state appeal. Copies of an Alabama court rul­ing in his case were sent to the New York law firm han­dling his appeals pro bono but were returned unopened to the court because the attor­neys rep­re­sent­ing Maples had left the firm. Maples him­self was not informed…

Daniel Cook is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on April 5 in Arizona, despite the fact that the lead pros­e­cu­tor at his 1988 cap­i­tal tri­al has said that he would not have sought the death penal­ty if he had known more about Cook’s trau­mat­ic back­ground and men­tal ill­ness. At tri­al, Cook waived his right to coun­sel and rep­re­sent­ed him­self after learn­ing his appoint­ed lawyer was suf­fer­ing from bipo­lar dis­or­der and was drink­ing heav­i­ly. The…

Following the repeal of the death penal­ty in Illinois, some state pros­e­cu­tors and judges have point­ed to poten­tial ben­e­fits to the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon recent­ly said that abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty meant that mur­der tri­als in the coun­ty could come to a con­clu­sion more quicly. McMahon said,​“To the extent that we can bring these cas­es to res­o­lu­tion soon­er, and help the…

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) announced on March 16 that it will switch to pen­to­bar­bi­tal as part of its three-drug lethal injec­tion pro­to­col for the upcom­ing exe­cu­tion of Cleve Foster on April 5. The short notice has drawn con­cerns from Foster’s defense attor­neys and lethal injec­tion experts. Maurie Levin, a pro­fes­sor at the University of Texas who rep­re­sents Foster, said,​“Prison offi­cials are not medical…