Publications & Testimony

Statement from the FDA Regarding Oversight of Lethal Injection Drugs and Release of Foreign Shipments to…

The infor­ma­tion and analy­sis in DPIC’s recent 2010 Year-End Report were report­ed in hun­dreds of media out­lets around the coun­try. Among the papers writ­ing edi­to­ri­als on the trends cit­ed in the report were the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Colorado’s Aurora Sentinel. The Times’ edi­to­r­i­al, ​“Still Cruel, Less Usual,” not­ed, ​“A report released this…

Following the release of the report from the New Hampshire Commission to Study the Death Penalty, New Hampshire​’s Concord Monitor called for an end to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state. The Commission con­clud­ed a year of pub­lic hear­ings and care­ful study and chose by a 12 – 10 vote to rec­om­mend nei­ther expand­ing nor abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty. However, the Monitor point­ed out that the evi­dence pre­sent­ed to the com­mis­sion was pri­mar­i­ly in favor of repeal­ing the…

On May 29, 2007, a jury in Charleston, West Virginia, rec­om­mend­ed death sen­tences for George Lecco and Valerie Friend for the mur­der of Carla Collins in order to pro­tect their drug ring. Prosecutors main­tained that Lecco arranged to have Collins killed and that Friend did the shoot­ing in 2005. Formal sen­tenc­ing was sched­uled for August 23. The judge is required to fol­low the jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion. These are the first fed­er­al death sen­tences in West Virginia since the fed­er­al law was…

Despite assis­tance from the coun­ty-sup­port­ed statewide Capital Crimes Defense Fund, local offi­cials in sev­er­al Idaho coun­ties are trou­bled by the eco­nom­ic bur­den of pros­e­cut­ing death penal­ty cas­es. They are also con­cerned about a recent fed­er­al appel­late court rul­ing that could over­turn all exist­ing state death sen­tences because Idaho’s sen­tenc­ing pro­ce­dures were deemed…

On Dec. 1, 2010, the New Hampshire Death Penalty Study Commission released its report to the gov­er­nor. The major­i­ty (12 – 10) report rec­om­mend­ed nei­ther the abo­li­tion nor the expan­sion of the death penal­ty. The report did find that there is an added cost for the death penal­ty as com­pared to a life with­out parole sen­tence: ​“There is a sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence in the cost of pros­e­cu­tion and incar­cer­a­tion of a first degree murder…

Gregory Wilson is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in Kentucky on September 16, despite hav­ing been rep­re­sent­ed by woe­ful­ly unqual­i­fied and unpre­pared attor­neys in his death penal­ty tri­al. It took over a year for the tri­al judge to find an attor­ney to take Wilson’s case. Wilson was indi­gent, and the max­i­mum state fee for a cap­i­tal-mur­der rep­re­sen­ta­tion was $2,500. The judge even put a note on his cour­t­house door, say­ing: ​“PLEASE HELP. DESPERATE. THIS CASE CANNOT BE…

Montana Assistant Attorney General John Connor has voiced sup­port for a leg­isla­tive mea­sure that would abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in his state. Stating his belief that the death penal­ty does not deter crime and is expen­sive, Connor told the Montana House Judiciary Committee, ​“It seems to me to be the ulti­mate incon­gruity to say we respect life so much that we’re going to ded­i­cate all our mon­ey, all our resources, our legal exper­tise and our entire sys­tem to try and…