Publications & Testimony

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the Philadelphia Inquirer cit­ed the high costs of Pennsylvania​’s death penal­ty as a key rea­son for sup­port­ing an abo­li­tion bill that was pro­posed last month by a state sen­a­tor. According to the edi­to­r­i­al, the state could sig­nif­i­cant­ly cut spend­ing by elim­i­nat­ing the death penal­ty and the lengthy court pro­ceed­ings that accom­pa­ny it. Taxpayers would also save by not hav­ing to main­tain the state’s high-secu­ri­ty death row, which…

Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma recent­ly grant­ed a stay to Richard Smith, who was sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on April 8. The gov­er­nor want­ed to allow more time to review the rec­om­men­da­tion of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that Smith’s death sen­tence be com­mut­ed, and to meet with pros­e­cu­tion and defense attor­neys to hear their per­spec­tives. Smith was con­vict­ed of a 1986 mur­der dur­ing a time when evi­dence of fundamental…

In North Carolina, Kristin Parks of Disability Rights N.C. and John Tote of the Mental Health Association‑N.C. point­ed to the case of Abdullah El-Amin Shareef as illus­trat­ing the need for a law exempt­ing the men­tall ill from the death penal­ty. A jury recent­ly sen­tenced Shareef to life in prison with­out parole in a case where pros­e­cu­tors had sought the death penal­ty. In April 2004, Shareef com­mit­ted a sense­less crime that killed one man and…

Kathleen Garcia, a vic­tims’ advo­cate and expert on trau­mat­ic grief, recent­ly shared her opin­ions on the death penal­ty in New Hampshire, a state that is study­ing the issue through its Commission on Capital Punishment. Garcia, a mem­ber of New Jersey’s Death Penalty Study Commission, wrote, ​“Make no mis­take – I am a con­ser­v­a­tive, a vic­tims’ advo­cate and a death penal­ty sup­port­er. But my real life expe­ri­ence has taught me that as long as the death penal­ty is on…

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled on March 25 that the cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion of Jamie Ryan Weis could pro­ceed despite the defen­dan­t’s claims that a lack of state fund­ing for cap­i­tal defense has deprived him of effec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion and a speedy tri­al. Weis, who was arrest­ed 4 years ago, was first appoint­ed two defense lawyers with death penal­ty expe­ri­ence but the agency that funds defense lawyers in cap­i­tal cas­es could not pay them. They were replaced by…

Texas is mov­ing clos­er to car­ry­ing out the exe­cu­tion of Henry Skinner on March 24, despite the fact that crit­i­cal evi­dence from the crime scene, which could point to a dif­fer­ent sus­pect, has not been sub­ject­ed to DNA test­ing . Many of the major state news­pa­pers in Texas have edi­to­ri­al­ized for a delay to the exe­cu­tion to allow for the DNA test­ing. On March 22, the Texas Board of Parole and Pardons refused to rec­om­mend clemen­cy for Skinner. Attorneys at the…

Gregory Taylor recent­ly became the first per­son exon­er­at­ed by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, the only state-run agency in the coun­try with the pow­er to over­turn con­vic­tions based on claims of inno­cence. Taylor had been con­vict­ed of the bru­tal mur­der of a pros­ti­tute, a crime for which he might have been exe­cut­ed in many states. In 1993, pros­e­cu­tors relied part­ly on a lab report indi­cat­ing that blood was found in Taylor’s SUV, which was found…