Publications & Testimony

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…

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.

On November 4, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered evi­den­tiary hear­ings to con­sid­er whether new­ly ana­lyzed DNA evi­dence should result in a new tri­al for Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin, who were con­vict­ed of the 1993 mur­ders of three West Memphis Cub Scouts. Echols was sen­tenced to death and the oth­er defen­dants received life. The results of the DNA tests on evi­dence from the crime scene…

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…

The FBI recent­ly released the lat­est ver­sion of its Uniform Crime Reports: Crime in the United States 2005. The report showed that the mur­der rate in 2005 (5.6 mur­ders per 100,000 peo­ple) was the same as in 2001, with lit­tle change in the inter­ven­ing years. Death sen­tences, exe­cu­tions and the size of death row all declined dur­ing this peri­od. As in pre­vi­ous years, the South had the high­erst mur­der rate, 6.6, among the 4 geo­graph­i­cal regions. Over 80% of the…

The Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment vot­ed on November 12 to rec­om­mend the aboli­ti­ion of the death penal­ty in the state. In a 13 – 7 vote, the Commission cit­ed the pos­si­bil­i­ty that an inno­cent per­son could be mis­tak­en­ly exe­cut­ed, as well as geo­graph­i­cal and racial dis­par­i­ties in how it is used. Benjamin Civiletti, the chair of the com­mis­sion and a for­mer U.S. attor­ney gen­er­al, said,​“It’s hap­haz­ard in how it’s applied, and that’s…

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Less than a month after the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will recon­sid­er the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the death penal­ty for juve­nile offend­ers, two state leg­isla­tive bod­ies have passed mea­sures to ban the prac­tice. The New Hampshire Senate passed its bill to ban the exe­cu­tion of those who were under the age of 18 at the time of their offense on February 19, 2004. The mea­sure now moves to the House, where a com­mit­tee hear­ing and vote are expect­ed in the…

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For our last post in 2010, the Death Penalty Information Center would like thank every­one who has con­tributed to and sup­port­ed the Center’s efforts in many ways this year. We thought it would be help­ful to high­light some of the resources avail­able on our web­site that you may have missed. In 2010, we con­duct­ed with Lake Research Partners one of the most com­pre­hen­sive nation­al polls on pub­lic opin­ion about the death penal­ty. You can find the…