Publications & Testimony

DPIC is pleased to announce the launch of its latest resource, State Information Pages, providing historical and current information on the death penalty for each state. This resource is a work-in-progress, but we are happy to present the first 15 state pages. Our original state-by-state database is still the best place to look for frequently-updated information such as execution totals and murder rates. The new pages are designed as a source of information on each state’s unique history…

Days after the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the electric chair was unconstitutional, a Lincoln Journal Star editorial urged the state to reconsider the death penalty: “Instead of rushing to pass a new means of capital punishment, the Legislature should take this opportunity to finally get rid of the death penalty.” Nebraska was the only state to retain the electric chair as its sole means of execution. The paper noted that it was the right time to take a broader look at the death penalty.

In a potentially far reaching ruling, a trial judge in New Mexico has barred the state from seeking the death penalty because the legislature has failed to provide adequate funding for defense representation. The state’s Attorney General, Gary King, agreed that the capital prosecution cannot go forward. After finding that funding for the defense was insufficient and raised constitutional problems, King wrote, “The state now confesses the motion to dismiss filed herein and cannot in good faith…

Ruling in a pre-trial matter in New Mexico, Judge Timothy Garcia of Santa Fe County’s First Judicial District Court held the state’s death penalty law to be unconstitutional based on a study by the Capital Jury Project. The Project’s research in 14 states had found that jurors often do not follow the law in making their sentencing decision. In particular, the judge found that the jurors’ propensity toward making their sentencing decision during the guilt-innocence phase of the trial was “an…

“Legacy of Violence: Lynch Mobs and Executions in Minnesota,” a book by John D. Bessler (University of Minnesota Press, 2003), examines the history of illegal and state-sanctioned executions in Minnesota, one of twelve states that currently does not have the death penalty. The book is timely in that the current governor, Tim Pawlenty, has proposed reinstating the death penalty, which was abolished in 1911. The book includes detailed personal accounts from those who were involved in the events…

Minnesota Senator Tom Neuville, the leading Republican committee member on the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee, says he will oppose Governor Tim Pawlenty’s efforts to reinstate death penalty. Neuville’s basic opposition is moral: “If we solve violence by becoming violent ourselves, we become diminished.” Neuville, a former death penalty supporter whose reexamination of his pro-life beliefs led him to change his mind on the issue, feels that many of his colleagues share his concerns. “Life is…

A Virginia judge ruled that prosecutors may not seek the death penalty against a Vietnamese man accused of murdering two people because police violated the man’s rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by not informing him that he could contact his country’s consulate. “[T]he duty to give notice is absolute… . [T]he idea that the state can completely ignore its treaty obligations without consequence essentially obliterates the purpose for which the rights under the Vienna…