Publications & Testimony

Lawyers for Jeffrey Landrigan, an Arizona death row inmate sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on October 26, have filed a motion ask­ing courts to com­pel the state to reveal its source of a drug to be used in his lethal injec­tion. Despite a nation­wide short­age of sodi­um thiopen­tal, Arizona recent­ly announced that it has obtained new sup­plies of the drug. The announce­ment came the same day that California filed a notice in fed­er­al court that it had…

On October 13, law enforce­ment offi­cers from the U.S. and Europe held the first pub­lic dis­cus­sion about whether the death penal­ty helps or hurts in keep­ing cit­i­zens safe, assists heal­ing for vic­tims, and uses crime-fight­ing resources effi­cient­ly. The pan­elists addressed issues such as deter­rence, clo­sure to vic­tims’ fam­i­lies, and costs in rela­tion to alter­na­tives. Former Detective Superintendent Bob Denmark of Lancashire Constabulary, England, who inves­ti­gat­ed over 100…

On October 13, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear argu­ments in Skinner v. Switzer. Hank Skinner was con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing his girl­friend and her two sons in 1993 in their Texas home. He has always main­tained his inno­cence, and there is untest­ed DNA evi­dence that may prove some­one else com­mit­ted the crime. Some DNA test­ing was con­duct­ed before tri­al, plac­ing Skinner in the house where his girl­friend lived, a fact he does not dispute.

“The Search for Lofie Louise” by Helen B. Anthony tells the true sto­ry of Louise Peete, a woman con­vict­ed of two mur­ders in California over two decades apart in the ear­ly 1900s. She denied her guilt in both instances, and her sto­ry and tri­al were wide­ly cov­ered by the media in California. Peete received a life sen­tence for the first mur­der and a death sen­tence for the sec­ond; she was exe­cut­ed on April 11, 1947. The author cap­tures the his­to­ry of the death penal­ty in an ear­li­er era. Today, the…

Police chiefs from around the coun­try are express­ing fears that crime rates will increase as law enforce­ment resources are cut dur­ing the eco­nom­ic down­turn. In Sacramento, California, homi­cides are up 43% and assaults on police offi­cers are up 13%, while the depart­ment was forced to elim­i­nate its vice unit. In Phoenix, Arizona, a lack of funds is caus­ing police vacan­cies to go unfilled. Similar con­cerns were expressed by police chiefs in…

On October 6, the U.S. Supreme Court heard argu­ments in Connick v. Thompson. John Thompson, who was released from death row in 2003 after new­ly dis­cov­ered evi­dence under­mined his mur­der con­vic­tion, sued the New Orleans District Attorney’s office for fail­ing to train its attor­neys about their legal oblig­a­tion to turn over evi­dence that could help defen­dants prove their inno­cence. Thompson’s lawyers dis­cov­ered that pros­e­cu­tors delib­er­ate­ly cov­ered up…