Publications & Testimony

On October 27, a group of former Texas judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officers delivered a letter to Governor Rick Perry, Attorney General Greg Abbott and District Attorney Lynn Switzer requesting DNA tests for death row inmate Hank Skinner. Signatories to the letter include: Mark White, former Governor of Texas (pictured); Morris L. Overstreet, former Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals; Sam Millsap, former Bexar County District Attorney; Kenneth J. Mighell, former United…

A broad range of citizens in California launched a signature campaign on October 25 to replace the death penalty with life in prison and no parole through a ballot initiative in November 2012. The signature drive was announced at the city hall in San Francisco and was attended by murder victims’ families and law enforcement officials, such as San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey (pictured), who support the measure. Hennessey cited a study released last June showing that California has sent…

A recent CNN perspective examined the views of those they called “the most unlikely opponents of the death penalty, people who lost loved ones to unspeakable violence yet believe executing the killer will do nothing for family members or society.” For example, Ross Byrd, the son of James Byrd, Jr., who was dragged to his death behind a truck in Texas by Lawrence Brewer, nevertheless objected to Brewer’s execution, saying “You can’t fight murder with murder.” In Mississippi, the mother and…

A recent report from the Pennsylvania Advisory Committee on Wrongful Convictions called for serious reforms in the state’s criminal justice system. The committee, which was instructed to identify the most common causes of wrongful convictions (some of which were capital cases) and any current laws and procedures implicated in each type of causation, found that, “under [the current] institutional structure, defendants have been punished for crimes they did not commit. Compounding these concerns…

DPIC is pleased to announce the addition of five more states to our State Information Pages. Information is now available for 25 states, including the latest entries: Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Massachusetts and New York. These pages provide historical and current information on the death penalty for each state (regardless of whether it currently has the death penalty), including famous cases, past legislative actions, and links to key organizations. For frequently-updated information, such…

On October 19, five African Americans filed a federal civil rights lawsuit charging that Alabama has illegally excluded blacks from serving on death penalty juries in Houston and Henry Counties. The plaintiffs in this class action suit were all previously barred from serving on juries in capital or other serious felony cases. In each case, state courts found blacks were illegally excluded from jury service because of their race. Bryan Stevenson, lead attorney for the plaintiffs and executive…

A new study by Professor Robert J. Smith of the DePaul University College of Law examines the imposition of death sentences by counties in the U.S. The author, who is also part of The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard, found that only a relatively few counties impose a large percentage of death sentences, while a large majority of jurisdictions have abandoned the use of capital punishment. Prof. Smith’s study found that death sentences that resulted in…

An upcoming death penalty trial in Ohio will cost three to four times more than the cost of a life-without-parole trial, according to the trial judge, Michael Sage (pictured). The death penalty trial for Hector Alvarenga Retana, scheduled to begin on October 31, is expected to cost Butler County an estimated $250,000, according to the judge, not counting the cost of appeals. He said, “[The cost] is so great we can’t afford to pay for that directly out of our ongoing budget. All the costs…

Recent polls conducted by Gallup and CNN indicate Americans’ support for the death penalty is continuing to decline. According to Gallup’s 2011 poll, the percentage of Americans approving the death penalty as a punishment for murder dropped to its lowest level in 39 years. Only 61% supported capital punishment in theory, down from 64% last year and from 80% support in 1994. This is the lowest level of support since 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Furman v. Georgia voided death…