Publications & Testimony

The Texas Criminal Jurisprudence Committee of the House of Representatives heard testimony on March 29 regarding HB 1641, a bill that would put a hold on executions while the death penalty was being studied. Charles Terrell, former Chairman of the state’s Department of Criminal Justice, supported the moratorium in a statement to the committee, expressing concerns about: “fairness to those convicted on the limited testimony of witnesses, racial fairness in some areas of our state, the absence of…

A new report issued by Amnesty International, Death Sentences and Executions 2010, shows a global trend away from the use of the death penalty. According to the report, only four countries in the G20 (representing the world’s major economies) carried out executions in 2010 (China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the U.S.), 36 of the 53 African Union member states are abolitionist in law or in practice, and only 21 of the 192 UN member states carried out executions in 2010. The report stated, “At the…

Gil Garcetti, the former district attorney of Los Angeles who pursued numerous death sentences, recently said California’s death penalty is dysfunctional and the resources spent on it should be diverted to more pressing needs. In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Garcetti said the death penalty causes ongoing torment to family members and friends of murder victims: “The living victims of a particular crime might think that a death verdict provides closure, but for most, there was no such…

Earlier in March, hearings were held in Connecticut before the House Judiciary Committee on a bill to replace the death penalty for future crimes with a sentence of life without parole. Many religious leaders, scholars, former death row inmates, and families of murder victims families testified in favor of the bill. Catholic Bishop Peter Rosazza, retired auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford, said, “The death penalty diminishes us all. We cannot teach respect for life by taking a…

As Yakima County, Washington, faces the possibility of its first death penalty trial since 1989, the danger that the high cost of a capital case could drain the county’s budget is a deep concern. Harold Delia, Yakima County court administrative consultant questioned the wisdom of seeking the death penalty against a defendant recently charged with murder, “You really have to wonder whether this really makes sense when you look at the cost-benefit analysis,” he said. “In Yakima County, we have no…

On March 21, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal from death-row inmate Cory Maples (pictured), who is facing execution because of a missed filing deadline in his state appeal. Copies of an Alabama court ruling in his case were sent to the New York law firm handling his appeals pro bono but were returned unopened to the court because the attorneys representing Maples had left the firm. Maples himself was not informed of the Alabama ruling or the fact that his attorneys had left. By…

Daniel Cook is scheduled for execution on April 5 in Arizona, despite the fact that the lead prosecutor at his 1988 capital trial has said that he would not have sought the death penalty if he had known more about Cook’s traumatic background and mental illness. At trial, Cook waived his right to counsel and represented himself after learning his appointed lawyer was suffering from bipolar disorder and was drinking heavily. The judge denied Cook’s petition for a mental heath expert, and Cook…