Publications & Testimony

As many schools are now begin­ning their new terms, the Death Penalty Information Center is proud to remind you of our two edu­ca­tion­al cur­ric­u­la on the death penal­ty. Our award-win­n­ing high school pro­gram, Educational Curriculum on the Death Penalty, includes 10-day les­son plans, inter­ac­tive maps and exer­cis­es, and a pre­sen­ta­tion of pros and cons on the death penal­ty for dis­cus­sion and debate. Our college-level curriculum,…

The U.S. Supreme Court has set oral-argu­­ment dates in three death penal­­ty-relat­ed cas­es for the upcom­ing 2010 – 2011 term. The Court begins its new term on Monday, October 4. On October 6, the Court will hear Connick v. Thompson. This case chal­lenges an award of $14 mil­lion to John Thompson, who had been sen­tenced to death in New Orleans but was lat­er acquit­ted of all charges. Lower courts had found that the dis­trict attor­ney’s office…

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.

Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna recent­ly said he is not sure the death penal­ty is the way to han­dle the worst crimes in his state.​“I could live with­out it frankly. I think it’s very expen­sive, and the delays are inor­di­nate, delay­ing clo­sure for the vic­tims’ fam­i­lies,” he said. McKenna said he uses the death penal­ty spar­ing­ly in Washington, reserv­ing it for the most seri­ous aggra­­vat­ed-mur­der con­vic­tions. He said he would con­tin­ue to uphold the…

Teresa Lewis is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on September 23 in Virginia, the first woman to be exe­cut­ed in that state in a cen­tu­ry. But Lynn Litchfield, the for­mer prison chap­lain who came to know Lewis over six years, has said she​“does­n’t deserve to die.” Litchfield recent­ly wrote in Newsweek Magazine that Lewis​“has an IQ of 72” and that​“one of the the two men who car­ried out the killings admitt[ed] that it was he, not she, who…

On September 2, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland (pic­tured) grant­ed clemen­cy to Kevin Keith, com­mut­ing his death sen­tence to life with­out parole. Keith, who was con­vict­ed of killing three peo­ple, has always main­tained his inno­cence, and some evi­dence point­ed to anoth­er sus­pect. Gov. Strickland’s com­mu­ta­tion state­ment addressed his con­cerns regard­ing Keith’s case:​“Mr. Keith’s con­vic­tion relied upon the linking of…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the Greensboro, NC, News & Record indi­cat­ed that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment may be​“on its last legs” in North Carolina.​“In prac­tice,” the edi­to­r­i­al stat­ed,​“the death penal­ty near­ly is erad­i­cat­ed. It is com­pli­cat­ed, cost­ly and no longer trust­ed.” According to the paper, use of the death penal­ty has been in steady decline. In 1999, 25 defen­dants were sen­tenced to death and anoth­er 16 were added the following year.

Seth Edwards, pres­i­dent of the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys, said that he sup­port­ed a mora­to­ri­um on the exe­cu­tion of any death row inmates whose cas­es include evi­dence from the State Bureau of Investigation. “[W]e need to make sure the issues are resolved in the SBI crime lab,” Edwards said.​“I just feel like the pub­lic right now is skep­ti­cal.” Last month, a gov­ern­ment audit showed that the lab had tam­pered with evidence…

Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell has signed 113 exe­cu­tion war­rants dur­ing his two terms in office, yet it appears like­ly that he will leave office in a few months with­out see­ing any of them car­ried out. Since the state rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty in 1978, only three men have been exe­cut­ed, all of whom had waived…

The lat­est edi­tion of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund​’s​“Death Row USA” shows that the num­ber of peo­ple on the death row in the United States is con­tin­u­ing to slow­ly decline, falling to 3,261 as of January 1, 2010. The size of death row at the start of 2009 was 3,297. In 2000, there were 3,682 inmates on death row. Nationally, the racial com­po­si­tion of those on death row is 44% white, 41% black, and 12% latino/​latina. California…