Publications & Testimony

DPIC has updated its Executions Per Death Death Sentence page to reflect data through 2010. This page lists states in order of the percentage of death sentences resulting in an execution since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. If every death sentence resulted in an execution, the state would be at 100%, or a rate of 1.00. Using this ratio of executions per death sentence, the first five states are Virginia (.725), Texas (.498), Utah (.368), Missouri (.347), and Delaware (.311). Of those…

Texas is planning to execute Hank Skinner on November 9 despite the fact that vital evidence from the crime scene in his case has not been subjected to DNA testing. Skinner has always maintained his innocence. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Skinner could file in federal court to compel the testing, but that litigation has not been completed. Moreover, a new Texas law became effective on September 1 to ensure that procedural barriers do not prevent the testing of biological evidence…

Texas inmate Duane Buck (pictured) is one of seven death row inmates whose death sentences were tainted by improper racial testimony presented at their trials. In 2000, then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn (now Senator) confessed the state’s error to the U.S. Supreme Court, noting that seven cases had been tainted by improper prosecution testimony. “It is inappropriate to allow race to be considered as a factor in our criminal justice system,” Cornyn said. “The people of Texas want and…

A soon-to-be-published study has found significant racial disparities in the U.S. military’s death penalty. The study, which will be published in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, found that minorities in the military are twice as likely to be sentenced to death as whites accused of similar crimes. The study examined all 105 potential capital cases since the military death penalty was reinstated in 1984. Of the 16 death sentences handed down in that time, 10 were of minority…

Florida has set an execution date of Septmeber 6 for Manuel Valle (pictured), a foreign national from Cuba who was deprived of his rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The European Union’s ambassador to the U.S. has asked Florida to halt the execution, and Florida’s Catholic Bishops have also requested clemency for Valle, saying, “Killing someone because they killed diminishes respect for life and promotes a culture of violence and vengeance.” The state plans to introduce…

Ohio is the only state currently using a single dose of the drug pentobarbital to execute inmates, while other states are using pentobarbital as part of a three-drug protocol. According to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC), the state’s supply of the drug will last only until February. Lundbeck, Inc., the manufacturer of pentobarbital, has said they are putting systems in place to block the use of their product in executions. Ohio recently announced changes to its…

After years of reports about the high costs of California’s death penalty, including a recent study that found the state has already spent $4 billion on capital punishment resulting in 13 executions, a group of Californians has announced a citizens’ initiative to put death penalty repeal on the 2012 ballot. The group, Taxpayers for Justice, includes over 100 law enforcement leaders, in addition to crime-victim advocates and exonerated individuals. Among them is former Los Angeles County…

Barry Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project in New York, recently disagreed with the opinion issued by the Texas Attorney General limiting the power of the Forensic Science Commission to investigate the case of a possibly innocent man who was executed in 2004. The AG’s decision held that the Commission does not have jurisdiction to examine evidence prior to 2005 and therefore could not look at evidence from the case of Cameron Todd Willingham (pictured), who was executed for arson based…

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln D. Chafee (Indep.) recently explained his denial of a request to transfer Jason Pleau to the federal government for a potential death penalty prosecution. Chafee stated, ” As a matter of public policy, Rhode Islanders have long opposed the death penalty, even for the most heinous crimes. To voluntarily let Mr. Pleau be exposed to the federal death penalty for a crime committed in Rhode Island would be an abdication of one of my core responsibilities as governor…

A new report by Professor James S. Liebman (pictured) and Peter Clarke from Columbia University Law School analyzes the declining use of the death penalty and concludes that, although it is abstractly supported by two-thirds of the public, the death penalty is actually practiced by only a distinct minority of jurisdictions in the United States. In their forthcoming article, “Minority Practice, Majority’s Burden: The Death Penalty Today,” Liebman and Clarke attempt to explain why the use of the…