Publications & Testimony

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,…

Ron McAndrew, a for­mer war­den who over­saw exe­cu­tions on Florida​’s death row, recent­ly tes­ti­fied at a New Hampshire hear­ing regard­ing the trau­ma prison staff endure dur­ing an exe­cu­tion. McAndrew said, ​“Many col­leagues turned to drugs and alco­hol from the pain of know­ing a man had died at their hands. And I’ve been haunt­ed by the men I was asked to exe­cute in the name of the state of Florida.” The New Hampshire hear­ing was con­duct­ed by a…

In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that his admin­is­tra­tion plans to bor­row over $64 mil­lion from the state’s gen­er­al fund for the con­struc­tion of a new death row at San Quentin. At the same time, the governor’s lawyers have recent­ly sought approval from the courts to fur­lough state work­ers and reduce their pay. Teachers, police offi­cers and fire­fight­ers are los­ing jobs because of the bud­get cri­sis. The gov­er­nor also plans…