Publications & Testimony

On January 20, a spe­cial mas­ter appoint­ed to review the con­duct of an appeals court judge who would not order her court to stay open late to receive a death penal­ty appeal, con­clud­ed that her con­duct did not mer­it removal from office. Special Master David Berchelmann of San Antonio found that the action of Judge Sharon Keller, Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals,​“does not war­rant removal from office or further reprimand…

A recent arti­cle in Parade mag­a­zine looked at the cost of the death penal­ty, espe­cial­ly in light of the bud­getary crises con­fronting most states in today’s econ­o­my. New Mexico and New Jersey recent­ly abol­ished the death penal­ty, and costs played a sig­nif­i­cant role in their deci­sions. New Mexico State Rep. Gail Chasey (D., Albuquerque) not­ed,​“We can put that mon­ey toward enhanc­ing law enforcement,…

A new book by David Oshinsky enti­tled​“Capital Punishment on Trial: Furman v. Georgia and the Death Penalty in Modern America” takes a clos­er look at the ground­break­ing Supreme Court case that stopped the death penal­ty in 1972. The author, a Pulitzer Prize-win­n­ing his­to­ri­an who is the hold­er of the Jack S. Blanton Chair at the University of Texas and a vis­it­ing pro­fes­sor at New York University, dis­cuss­es the debates and controversy…

In an opin­ion piece in the News & Observer, Professor Frank Baumgartner of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, recent­ly wrote that the declin­ing use and high costs of the death penal­ty in the state put into ques­tion the wis­dom of retain­ing the pun­ish­ment in North Carolina. Baumgartner not­ed that while mur­der rates in the state have remained rel­a­tive­ly unchanged, the num­ber of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment tri­als and death sentences have…

Roy Brown, state sen­a­tor and 2008 Republican nom­i­nee for gov­er­nor of Montana, said that oppo­si­tion to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment aligns well with his con­ser­v­a­tive ide­ol­o­gy. He is reach­ing out to social and fis­cal con­ser­v­a­tives, hop­ing to cre­ate a bipar­ti­san move­ment against cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Brown not­ed,​“I believe that life is pre­cious from the womb to a nat­ur­al death.” He con­tin­ued,​“Criminals should be prosecuted.

Higher costs, the exon­er­a­tion of inno­cent death row inmates and jurors’ expec­ta­tion of DNA proof are all being cit­ed as rea­sons for pros­e­cu­tors decid­ing not to seek the death penal­ty in Indiana. Recently, a high pro­file death penal­ty case cost the state $800,000 before it dropped the death penal­ty in exchange for a guilty plea and life-with­­out-parole sen­tence.​“It’s the tax­pay­er dol­lars, stu­pid, when it comes to the death penal­ty,” said Indiana defense…

On January 20, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the death sen­tence for Holly Wood for the 1993 shoot­ing of his for­mer girl­friend in Alabama, despite the fact that the attor­ney work­ing on the penal­ty phase of the case failed to inves­ti­gate or tell the jury about Wood’s bor­der­line men­tal retar­da­tion. A fed­er­al District Court had over­turned his death sen­tence because of the inad­e­quate per­for­mance of the…

On January 19, the U.S. Supreme Court grant­ed cer­tio­rari and reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Wellons v. Hall, order­ing the low­er court to re-exam­­ine the appeal of Marcus Wellons, who received the death penal­ty for a 1989 rape and mur­der in Georgia. The Court’s per curi­am opin­ion described​“unusu­al events going on behind the scenes” at Wellons’ tri­al, includ­ing con­tacts outside the…

On January 14, and almost 30 years after the crime, the Florida Supreme Court crit­i­cized the state for​“law­less con­duct” and vacat­ed the death sen­tence of Paul Beasley Johnson because​“the record here is so rife with evi­dence of pre­vi­ous­ly undis­closed pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct that we have no choice but to grant relief.” Because of pop­u­lar sen­ti­ment and the noto­ri­ety of the crime, Governor Charlie Crist signed…

On January 14, President Tsakhia Elbegdorj called for a mora­to­ri­um on all exe­cu­tions in Mongolia. President Elbegdorj told the Mongolian par­lia­ment,​“The major­i­ty of the world’s coun­tries have cho­sen to abol­ish the death penal­ty. We should fol­low this path.” He vowed to par­don those on death row and sug­gest­ed com­mut­ing the death sen­tences to a 30-year prison term. Amnesty International esti­mat­ed that at least 5 peo­ple were executed…