Publications & Testimony

Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell has signed 113 exe­cu­tion war­rants dur­ing his two terms in office, yet it appears like­ly that he will leave office in a few months with­out see­ing any of them car­ried out. Since the state rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty in 1978, only three men have been exe­cut­ed, all of whom had waived their…

Kentucky Governor Steven Beshear recent­ly held off sign­ing death war­rants for two inmates because of a short­age of the drug sodi­um thiopen­tal, a key com­po­nent of the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col. Kentucky’s stock of the lethal injec­tion drug expires October 1, and the Department of Corrections does not expect a new sup­ply until ear­ly 2011 because the only sup­pli­er of this drug in the coun­try, Hospira, is unable to obtain the active ingre­di­ent for the drug. Even when a…

Paul Clement (pic­tured), for­mer Solicitor General under President George W. Bush, along with a group of for­mer Justice Department pros­e­cu­tors and civ­il rights offi­cials, is ask­ing the U.S. Supreme Court for time to argue on behalf of a for­mer death row inmate in a case address­ing pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. Lawyers for John Thompson claimed that the New Orleans dis­trict attor­ney’s office sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly with­held impor­tant evi­dence that would…

On August 24, U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore Jr. reject­ed Troy Davis​’s peti­tion to over­turn his con­vic­tion for killing a police offi­cer in 1989 in Georgia. Judge Moore chose a high stan­dard of proof that Davis would have to meet to estab­lish his inno­cence claim: Davis need­ed to prove by ​“clear and con­vinc­ing evi­dence that no rea­son­able juror would have con­vict­ed him in light of the new evi­dence.” Judge Moore did con­clude that it…

After an audit of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) con­duct­ed by for­mer FBI agents at the request of North Carolina’s attor­ney gen­er­al, it was revealed that offi­cials with­held blood evi­dence affect­ing 269 defen­dants. The report list­ed three death penal­ty cas­es that result­ed in exe­cu­tions. Although each of the exe­cut­ed defen­dants con­fessed to the crimes, such con­fes­sions are some­times sus­pect and evi­dence with­held by the state might have…

The lat­est edi­tion of the Death Penalty Information Center’s series of pod­casts, DPIC on the Issues, is now avail­able for down­load. This pod­cast, Victims and the Death Penalty, explores the issues faced by mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­lies when cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is being con­sid­ered. Generally, this series of pod­casts offers brief, infor­ma­tive dis­cus­sions of key death penal­ty issues. Other recent episodes include dis­cus­sions on…

A gov­ern­ment-ordered audit of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation found that the agency false­ly report­ed blood evi­dence in dozens of cas­es, includ­ing three that end­ed in exe­cu­tions. The inquiry, ordered by Attorney General Roy Cooper, found that SBI agents improp­er­ly aid­ed pros­e­cu­tors for over a 16-year peri­od, call­ing into ques­tion con­vic­tions in 230 crim­i­nal cas­es. Duane Deaver, a vet­er­an SBI ana­lyst who per­formed the work in five par­tic­u­lar­ly trou­bling cases,…