Publications & Testimony

A recent study pub­lished by the Equal Justice Initiative, a non­prof­it human rights and legal ser­vices orga­ni­za­tion in Alabama, shows that the prac­tice of exclud­ing blacks and oth­er racial minori­ties from juries remains wide­spread and large­ly unchecked, espe­cial­ly in the South. The study,​“Illegal Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection: A Continuing Legacy,” found that in Alabama, courts have found racially…

When the stu­dent body pres­i­dent of the University of North Carolina, Eve Marie Carson, was mur­dered in 2008, both the state and the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment ini­ti­at­ed death penal­ty pros­e­cu­tions against one of the defen­dants. However, many of Ms. Carson’s fam­i­ly and friends were con­vinced that she opposed the death penal­ty and would not want it sought in her case. Family mem­bers were influ­en­tial in the recent deci­sion by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to…

In recent years, states that have abol­ished the death penal­ty have also had pop­u­la­tions with a high per­cent­age of Catholics (Illinois 30%; New Jersey 41%; New Mexico 25 %; and New York 37%). In some instances, Catholic polit­i­cal lead­ers, such as Gov. Pat Quinn in Illinois and Gov. Bill Richardson in New Mexico, played a promi­nent role in deci­sion mak­ing on the death penal­ty. Although many fac­tors play a role in leg­isla­tive actions, a recent poll by Lake Research Partners on…

Last Words of the Executed by Robert K. Elder is a com­pi­la­tion of the final state­ments of death row inmates short­ly before their exe­cu­tion. The book, with a fore­word by Studs Terkel, also describes the crime and some of the social set­ting of each case pre­sent­ed. According to a review in The Economist,​“The last words are remark­able for their remorse, humour, hatred, res­ig­na­tion, fear and brava­do…. America’s diverse heritage…

On May 24, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a deci­sion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, there­by giv­ing the defen­dant anoth­er chance to show that his tri­al coun­sel was con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly inef­fec­tive. Lawrence Jefferson was sen­tenced to death in Georgia, despite the fact that he had suf­fered seri­ous head injuries as a child. In an appeal in state court, he claimed that his attor­ney failed to investigate…

El Paso County (Texas) recent­ly fired its Chief Medical Examiner, Paul Shrode, who had tes­ti­fied in cap­i­tal cas­es in Texas and Ohio. He was dis­missed after evi­dence he pro­vid­ed in an Ohio death penal­ty case turned out to be unsup­port­ed by sci­ence. It was also dis­cov­ered that he had made numer­ous mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tions on his resume. Earlier in May, the Ohio Parole Board vot­ed to rec­om­mend clemency for…

Robert Stott, a vet­er­an pros­e­cu­tor in the Salt Lake County (Utah) District Attorney’s Office, recent­ly com­ment­ed on why death sen­tences have declined.​“What I have found,” he said,​“is that since the statute was changed to offer life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole, it’s more dif­fi­cult to get the death penal­ty. Jurors real­ize that instead of hav­ing to make that ter­ri­ble deci­sion (vot­ing for the death penal­ty), they can vote to put…

On May 24, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to con­sid­er whether a Texas death row inmate’s request for DNA test­ing can be con­sid­ered as a civ­il rights claim rather than part of his death penal­ty appeal. The Court stayed Hank Skinner​’s exe­cu­tion on March 24, just one hour before he was to be put to death. Skinner, who has always main­tained his inno­cence of the 1993 mur­ders of his girl­friend and her two sons, has requested that…

Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry grant­ed clemen­cy to Richard Tandy Smith, who was orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced to death for a 1986 shoot­ing dur­ing an alleged drug deal. Earlier this year, the Pardon and Parole Board approved a clemen­cy rec­om­men­da­tion for Smith and for­ward­ed it to the gov­er­nor for approval. Governor Henry said,​“This was a very dif­fi­cult deci­sion and one that I did not take light­ly. I am always reluc­tant to inter­vene in a capital…

The Ohio Parole Board recent­ly rec­om­mend­ed clemen­cy for death row inmate Richard Nields, who was sen­tenced to death for killing his live-in girl­friend dur­ing an argu­ment in 1997. The board ques­tioned the valid­i­ty of med­ical evi­dence used at tri­al that helped sup­port the death sen­tence. Testimony pro­vid­ed by a doc­­tor-in-train­ing indi­cat­ed the vic­tim had been beat­en and stran­gled. However, the deputy coro­ner and super­vi­sor of the…