Publications & Testimony

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…

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…

David Powell (pic­tured left), who was sen­tenced to death in 1978 for the shoot­ing of Austin police offi­cer Ralph Ablanedo (pic­tured below), faces exe­cu­tion in Texas on June 15. During his 30 years on death row, Powell has shown sin­cere remorse and regret for his actions. In 2009, Powell wrote to Officer Ablanedo’s fam­i­ly:​“I am infi­nite­ly sor­ry that I killed Ralph Ablanedo. I shot Officer Ablanedo and I take…

The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber details the his­to­ry and devel­op­ment of the gas cham­ber as a method of exe­cu­tion in the United States. Author Scott Christianson explores con­nec­tions between the gas cham­ber and the eugen­ics move­ment, as well as new evi­dence about Hitler’s adop­tion of gas cham­ber tech­nol­o­gy devel­oped in the United States. Charles Lanier, Director of the Capital Punishment Research…

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…