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…

According to a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) entitled, ​“Slamming the Courthouse Doors: Denial of Access to Justice and Remedy in America,” many states severe­ly restrict access to jus­tice for cap­i­tal defen­dants and lim­it the avail­abil­i­ty of reme­dies to cor­rect errors. The prob­lem of inad­e­quate coun­sel con­tin­ues to per­vade death penal­ty sys­tems across the coun­try:​“Few states pro­vide ade­quate funds to…

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…

A recent op-ed by Pulitzer Prize-win­n­ing colum­nist Nicholas Kristof (pic­tured) of the New York Times focus­es on the pos­si­ble inno­cence of Kevin Cooper, a black defen­dant on California​’s death row. Kristof writes,​“This case is a trav­es­ty. It under­scores the cen­tral pit­fall of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment: no sys­tem is fail-safe. How can we be about to exe­cute a man when even some of America’s lead­ing judges believe he has…

A recent report to the Committee on Defender Services of the Judicial Conference of the United States by Jon Gould and Lisa Greenman pro­vid­ed an update on the costs of rep­re­sen­ta­tion in fed­er­al death penal­ty cas­es. The report exam­ined all cas­es in which the fed­er­al death penal­ty was autho­rized by the U.S. Attorney General between 1998 and 2004. The authors found that​“The medi­an cost of a case in which the Attorney General autho­rized seek­ing the death…

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of Bruce Webster, an inmate on the fed­er­al death row with evi­dence that he is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abed. In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled in Atkins v. Virginia that the exe­cu­tion of a per­son with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties (men­tal retar­da­tion) would be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Webster’s evi­dence indi­cates that three fed­er­al doc­tors deter­mined he had an intellectual…

A short­age of qual­i­fied crim­i­nal defense lawyers in California has caused major delays in the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. Nearly half of those sen­tenced to death in California are wait­ing for the state to appoint them a post-con­vic­­tion attor­ney. Death row inmates wait an aver­age of 10 – 12 years. The long delay is attrib­uted to the lack of expe­ri­enced lawyers to take on this part of the appeals process. The California Supreme Court…

A recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Barry Scheck, co-direc­­tor of the Innocence Project, high­lighs flaws in Texas’s death penal­ty sys­tem that led to the exe­cu­tion of Claude Jones (pic­tured). Then-gov­­er­nor George Bush reject­ed Jones’s appli­ca­tion for a reprieve. Bush was not informed that the reprieve would allow time for DNA tests to be per­formed on a strand of hair that was found at the crime scene. This hair…

In an article entitled ​“Solitary Men” in The Texas Observer, Dave Mann describes the con­di­tions for inmates on Texas​’s death row. Inmates in the Polunsky Unit near Livingston, Texas, spend almost their entire time alone in a 60-square-foot cell. He writes,​“The cells have a small win­dow at one end. The steel door has a nar­row win­dow and, at the bot­tom, a slit through which guards slide trays of food.…Little pen­e­trates these cement boxes…

An op-ed by Bob Herbert of the New York Times high­lights issues raised by for­mer Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens that changed his mind on the death penal­ty in the U.S. Herbert cites infor­ma­tion col­lect­ed by the Death Penalty Information Center and points to shod­dy defense and state mis­con­duct in the delib­er­ate with­hold­ing of evi­dence as promi­nent abus­es in the sys­tem.​“Executions have been upheld in cases…