Publications & Testimony
Items: 3991 — 4000
Jun 17, 2010
Supreme Court Agrees to Hear California Death Penalty Case
On June 14, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Cullen v. Pinholster. In 1984, Scott Pinholster was convicted and sentenced to death for killing two men during a burglary in Los Angeles, California. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned Pinholster’s death sentence because of ineffectiveness of counsel since his lawyer did not give the jury evidence of Pinholster’s mental illness during the penalty phase…
Read MoreJun 16, 2010
DNA Evidence Could Show If Texas Executed an Innocent Man
Texas Judge Paul C. Murphy recently ordered prosecutors to hand over key evidence from a 1989 murder case to the Innocence Project and the Texas Observer for DNA testing. In 2007, the Innocence Project and the Observer filed suit to obtain a one-inch strand of hair that allegedly implicated Claude Howard Jones (pictured) in the killing of a liquor store owner in San Jacinto County. Other than vague eyewitness accounts and…
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Jun 15, 2010
Supreme Court Allows Late Appeal Under Extraordinary Circumstances
On June 14, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Albert Holland, who lost his right to file a federal appeal of his death sentence when his lawyer missed the 1‑year deadline established under the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that Holland’s attorney’s conduct in missing the deadline was not egregious enough to warrant setting aside the imposed…
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Jun 14, 2010
MULTIMEDIA: “Slow Death of the Death Penalty” on CBS News Sunday Morning
Jun 10, 2010
NEW VOICES: Utah Religious Leaders Express Concerns about the Death Penalty in Anticipation of Firing Squad Execution
The upcoming execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner, who has opted to be killed by a firing squad in Utah on June 18, has attracted the attention of many people of faith in the state. Hours before Gardner’s execution, prominent religious leaders will gather for a vigil to protest the execution. Religious leaders from groups often associated with being supportive of the death penalty have recently voiced concerns about the practice. The Mormon Church…
Read MoreJun 10, 2010
California Regulators Reject New Death Penalty Procedures
On June 8, California’s Office of Administrative Law rejected the new lethal injection procedures proposed by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, identifying several passages that conflicted with state law, that were unclear, or failed to properly state reasons for the new procedures. There has been a de facto moratorium on all executions in the state since 2006 after a federal judge ordered the state to revise its lethal injection process…
Read MoreJun 09, 2010
NEW RESOURCES: The Death Penalty for Drug Offences — Global Overview 2010
The International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) recently published a report on the use of the death penalty for drug crimes around the world. The report distinguishes between countries that have legislation allowing a death sentence for drug offenses and those that actually apply it in practice. According to the report, 32 jurisdictions retain the death penalty for drug offenses (out of the 58 countries that have the death penalty for any offense), at least 12 of which…
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Jun 08, 2010
Ohio Governor Spares the Life of Death Row Inmate
On June 4, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland granted clemency to Richard Nields, reducing his death sentence to life without parole. Nields was scheduled to be executed later in June for the 1997 murder of his girlfriend in suburban Cincinnati. In May, the Ohio Parole Board recommended Nields for clemency because of problems with medical testimony at Nields’s trial. Dr. Paul Shrode, who was still in training at the time of the trial, testified…
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Jun 07, 2010
Pennsylvania Cost Commission to Consider Expensive Death Penalty System
On Monday, June 7, the Pennsylvania State Government Management and Cost Study Commission will hear from experts on proposals to cut the costs of various government programs. The Commission, established in 2009, is comprised of private and public sector cost-minded leaders in Pennsylvania and has been charged with studying the management of government operations and making recommendations for cost-cutting measures. Among the experts who will testify at the hearing is Richard…
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Jun 07, 2010
Testimony of Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center, before the Pennsylvania Senate Government Management and Cost Study Commission on the costs of the death penalty and its lack of return.
Testimony of Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center, before the Pennsylvania Senate Government Management and Cost Study Commission on the costs of the death penalty and its lack of return. (Harrisburg, June 7,…
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