Publications & Testimony

On September 10, Franklin County Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled that Kentucky​’s new exe­cu­tion pro­to­col is incon­sis­tent with state law and does not pro­vide safe­guards to pre­vent an inmate who is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled or crim­i­nal­ly insane from being exe­cut­ed. As a result, Judge Shepherd stayed the September 16 exe­cu­tion of Gregory Wilson, stat­ing, ​“Because the state’s pro­to­col does­n’t include a mech­a­nism to deter­mine if some­one is men­tal­ly retard­ed and…

Acclaimed author John Grisham recent­ly pub­lished an op-ed in the Washington Post ques­tion­ing why Teresa Lewis is fac­ing the death penal­ty when both her co-defen­dants, two men who actu­al­ly com­mit­ted the killings, were giv­en life-with­out-parole sen­tences. According to Grisham, the judge who sen­tenced Lewis to death mis­tak­en­ly believed that she was the ​“mas­ter­mind” behind the killings. However, it has now been revealed that her IQ of 72…

As many schools are now begin­ning their new terms, the Death Penalty Information Center is proud to remind you of our two edu­ca­tion­al cur­ric­u­la on the death penal­ty. Our award-win­ning high school pro­gram, Educational Curriculum on the Death Penalty, includes 10-day les­son plans, inter­ac­tive maps and exer­cis­es, and a pre­sen­ta­tion of pros and cons on the death penal­ty for dis­cus­sion and debate. Our col­lege-lev­el cur­ricu­lum, Capital Punishment in…

The U.S. Supreme Court has set oral-argu­ment dates in three death penal­ty-relat­ed cas­es for the upcom­ing 2010 – 2011 term. The Court begins its new term on Monday, October 4. On October 6, the Court will hear Connick v. Thompson. This case chal­lenges an award of $14 mil­lion to John Thompson, who had been sen­tenced to death in New Orleans but was lat­er acquit­ted of all charges. Lower courts had found that the dis­trict attor­ney’s office failed to train…

Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna recent­ly said he is not sure the death penal­ty is the way to han­dle the worst crimes in his state. ​“I could live with­out it frankly. I think it’s very expen­sive, and the delays are inor­di­nate, delay­ing clo­sure for the vic­tims’ fam­i­lies,” he said. McKenna said he uses the death penal­ty spar­ing­ly in Washington, reserv­ing it for the most seri­ous aggra­vat­ed-mur­der con­vic­tions. He said he would con­tin­ue to uphold the law, if the peo­ple still…

Teresa Lewis is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on September 23 in Virginia, the first woman to be exe­cut­ed in that state in a cen­tu­ry. But Lynn Litchfield, the for­mer prison chap­lain who came to know Lewis over six years, has said she ​“does­n’t deserve to die.” Litchfield recent­ly wrote in Newsweek Magazine that Lewis ​“has an IQ of 72” and that ​“one of the the two men who car­ried out the killings admitt[ed] that it was he, not she, who mas­ter­mind­ed the…

On September 2, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland (pic­tured) grant­ed clemen­cy to Kevin Keith, com­mut­ing his death sen­tence to life with­out parole. Keith, who was con­vict­ed of killing three peo­ple, has always main­tained his inno­cence, and some evi­dence point­ed to anoth­er sus­pect. Gov. Strickland’s com­mu­ta­tion state­ment addressed his con­cerns regard­ing Keith’s case: ​“Mr. Keith’s con­vic­tion relied upon the link­ing of cer­tain eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny with…