Publications & Testimony

Walla Walla County (Washington) Sheriff Mike Humphreys said the death penal­ty does not deter homi­cides, and it may be time for the pub­lic to recon­sid­er the law: ​“At the time, (per­pe­tra­tors do not) think about [the death penal­ty]. They don’t believe they’re going to get caught. And if they do get caught, there are a lot of court pro­ceed­ings mak­ing it like­ly (exe­cu­tion is) not going to hap­pen.… It’s cost­ing us this much mon­ey. Let the peo­ple make that…

The for­mer direc­tor of Kentucky’s courts recent­ly rec­om­mend­ed that the state stop wast­ing mon­ey on the death penal­ty and direct those resources where they are need­ed more. ​“We’ve got a sys­tem in Kentucky where there’s not enough mon­ey for pub­lic advo­cates, for pros­e­cu­tors, for drug courts, fam­i­ly courts, for juve­nile ser­vices, for reha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­grams, and we’re using the mon­ey we have in a way I think is unwise,” said Jason Nemes, for­mer direc­tor of the state Administrative Office…

On November 9, the U.S. Supreme Court grant­ed cer­tio­rari in the case of Bobby v. Van Hook (No. 09 – 144) and issued a per curi­am opin­ion over­turn­ing a pan­el of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which had grant­ed Robert Van Hook a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing based on inef­fec­tive­ness of coun­sel. Van Hook had been con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for a mur­der com­mit­ted in 1985 fol­low­ing an encounter in a bar. The Supreme Court held that, judg­ing by professional…

The Tennessee Law Review recent­ly pub­lished a com­pi­la­tion of arti­cles and essays from its col­lo­qui­um, ​“The Past, Present, and Future of the Death Penalty,” held in February 2009. Contributors focused on issues that have influ­enced cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment through­out the course of his­to­ry. An arti­cle by Hugo Adam Bedau, a promi­nent death penal­ty schol­ar, address­es the issues of inno­cence and racial bias in the appli­ca­tion of the death…

A recent opin­ion piece by the Editorial Director of the Clarion-Ledger in Mississippi points to the high costs of the death penal­ty as a way in which arbi­trari­ness enters into the appli­ca­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment: ​“When is a crime a crime deserv­ing of death?,” David Hampton asks. ​“When the coun­ty can afford it, of course.” The paper sup­ports the death penal­ty but the Editorial Director offered the exam­ple of Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith, who…