Publications & Testimony

In November, a pre­lim­i­nary res­o­lu­tion was pre­sent­ed to the United Nations General Assembly for a mora­to­ri­um on the use of the death penal­ty around the world. Panama, the European Union, Paraguay, Philippines, East Timor, Rwanda, Mozambique and Russia were among the res­o­lu­tion’s spon­sors. Other co-spon­­sors includ­ed nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The res­o­lu­tion received 107 votes in favor, 38 against and 36 absten­tions. In 2007, a similar…

In a recent edi­to­r­i­al, the Chicago Sun-Times sup­port­ed the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty in Illinois dur­ing the cur­rent leg­isla­tive ses­sion. The paper not­ed its past sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment:​“In the past, we’ve sup­port­ed the death penal­ty as long as the legal sys­tem gives the accused a fair tri­al that results in a ver­dict of guilt beyond res­on­able doubt. Sadly, in light of expe­ri­ences in recent years, that goal…

The Illinois Capital Reform Study Committee, cre­at­ed by the state leg­is­la­ture in 2003 and head­ed by Thomas P. Sullivan, a for­mer U.S. Attorney, recent­ly issued its sixth and final report on the Illinois death penal­ty. The report found that tax­pay­ers are spend­ing tens of mil­lions of dol­lars on the pros­e­cu­tion of a large num­ber of death-penal­­ty cas­es, even though rel­a­tive­ly few result in actu­al death sen­tences. Since 2003, 18 peo­ple have been…

The longest serv­ing inmate on Texas​’s death row died of nat­ur­al caus­es in Dallas County Jail while await­ing a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing. Ronald Curtis Chambers spent 35 years on death row await­ing exe­cu­tion. For much of the time, he was con­fined to his cell for 23 hours a day. Chambers was con­vict­ed of cap­i­tal mur­der and sen­tenced to death in 1975, but his sen­tence was over­turned repeat­ed­ly. He was again sen­tenced to death in 1985 and 1992. James…

A cap­i­tal jury in Philadelphia illus­trat­ed the divi­sive­ness and arbi­trari­ness of the death penal­ty when it could not decide on a sen­tence for Rasheed Scrugs, who admit­ted to killing Police Officer John Pawlowski. The atmos­phere in the jury room became​“hor­ri­ble” accord­ing to one of the jurors. Jurors almost imme­di­ate­ly report­ed no chance for a ver­dict, as delib­er­a­tions began with sev­en for life in prison and five for death by lethal injec­tion. Some…

TELECONFERENCE FOR JOURNALISTS — TUES. NOV.

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland grant­ed clemen­cy to Sidney Cornwell, reduc­ing this sen­tence to life with­out parole. Cornwell faced exe­cu­tion on November 16 for a 1996 gang-relat­ed shoot­ing in Youngstown. Attorneys for Cornwell argued that he grew up in an abu­sive envi­ron­ment and that he suf­fered from a genet­ic con­di­tion that con­tributed to his vio­lent ten­den­cies. The attor­neys also said that Cornwell’s death sentence was…

Recent DNA tests raise seri­ous doubts about the con­vic­tion of a man exe­cut­ed in Texas in 2000. The tests revealed that a strand of hair found at the scene of a liquor-store shoot­ing did not belong to Claude Jones, as was orig­i­nal­ly implied by the pros­e­cu­tion. Instead, the hair belonged to the vic­tim. Jones was exe­cut­ed for the mur­der of the store’s own­er. The strand of hair was the only piece of phys­i­cal evi­dence that placed Jones at the…

The death penal­ty under the Uniform Code of Military Justice was rein­stat­ed in 1984. The mil­i­tary death row is locat­ed at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. There are cur­rent­ly sev­en death row inmates await­ing exe­cu­tion, five of whom are African-Americans and two of whom are white. Unlike state exe­cu­tions, mem­bers of the mil­i­tary can­not be exe­cut­ed unless the President per­son­al­ly con­firms the death sen­tence. The President also has the power…

Oklahoma recent­ly filed a peti­tion with a fed­er­al court ask­ing that pen­to­bar­bi­tal, an anes­thet­ic agent used in euthana­sia of ani­mals, be allowed as a sub­sti­tute for sodi­um thiopen­tal in lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures. Earlier this year, Hospira Inc., the nation’s sole man­u­fac­tur­er of the lat­ter drug, announced that it has ceased pro­duc­tion because of a short­age in one of the ingre­di­ents. The short­age has forced Oklahoma and other…