Publications & Testimony
Items: 4141 — 4150
Jul 10, 2009
STUDIES: “Double Tragedies”: Mental Illness and the Death Penalty
A new report, “Double Tragedies,” addresses the question of whether people with severe mental illness should face the death penalty. The report was authored by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights (MVFHR) and called for treatment and prevention instead of execution for such offenders. The report, based on extensive interviews with 21 family members in 10 different states, calls the death penalty…
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Jul 06, 2009
New Evidence Throws Doubt on Ohio Death Row Inmate’s Conviction
Attorneys for Ohio death row inmate Kevin Keith have presented new evidence casting doubt on his original conviction in briefs filed with the Ohio State Supreme Court. The Ohio Innocence Project has also asked for a new trial for Keith, supporting the claim that suppressed evidence points to another suspect who said he was paid to $15,000 to “cripple” the drug informant who was the victim of the shootings for which Keith was condemned to death. Additionally,…
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Jul 02, 2009
NEW VOICES: Prominent Conservative Calls for Death Penalty Moratorium
Richard A. Viguerie, who has been called “one of the creators of the modern conservative movement” by The Nation magazine, recently wrote an op-ed in which he discusses how his conservative ideology led him to oppose the death penalty and calls for a national moratorium on the death penalty. “The fact is, I don’t understand why more conservatives don’t oppose the death penalty,” writes Viguerie. He argues the standard conservative position of…
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Jun 30, 2009
NEW RESOURCES: DPIC’s 2008 Article Index is Available
Each year, DPIC collects relevant death penalty articles that have appeared in print and on media Web sites. Our collection certainly does not contain all such articles, nor do we claim that it represents the “best” articles. It is only a representative sample of the extensive coverage given to capital punishment in print in a particular year. For those interested in examining this coverage, we have prepared an index of the articles from 2008 in Excel format. Note that we are…
Read MoreJun 29, 2009
DNA Evidence Leads to Release of Texas Man Who Spent Four Years on Death Row
A man originally sentenced to death for four murders in Texas has been released on his own recognizance after new DNA evidence was discovered. Robert Springsteen and co-defendant Michael Scott were released by State District Judge Mike Lynch after prosecutors said they were not prepared to go to trial as scheduled, leaving Judge Lynch to follow through on his promise to the defendants that another delay would mean freedom for the defendants. Lynch said he not only had to consider the charges…
Read MoreJun 26, 2009
COSTS: North Carolina Spent At Least $36 Million Extra Pursuing Capital Cases over 7 Years
According to a study by the Independent Weekly, North Carolina conservatively spent at least $36 million dollars by seeking the death penalty instead of life in prison without parole over the past 7 years, just on defense costs. The state’s Indigent Defense Services organization said the average cost of a death penalty defense was $63,700, and the state sought the death penalty 733 times between 2001 and 2008. The average cost of the 1,785 potentially capital cases…
Read MoreJun 25, 2009
NEW RESOURCES: DPIC Offers Podcasts on Costs, Clemency, and Arbitrariness
If you would like to listen to a brief but informative discussion of key death penalty issues, try DPIC’s newest resource–Podcasts. The most recent episode of this educational series explores the issue of the Costs of the death penalty. You can also choose to listen to previous episodes to learn more about the issues of Arbitrariness and Clemency. Podcasts may be downloaded for listening later on a digital music player. More…
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Jun 24, 2009
Top Prison Doctor’s Resignation Illustrates Ethical Conflict with Lethal Injection Protocol
Washington’s former medical director for the Department of Corrections, Dr. Marc Stern, recently resigned from his post because of an ethichal conflict with his role in supervising those who carried out executions. For example, the prison’s medical director, a nurse, attended at least 8 practice sessions with the four-member lethal-injection team, including some held on the kitchen countertop at a team member’s home. As he left his position on the eve of a…
Read MoreJun 23, 2009
BOOKS: Lethal Rejection – Stories on Crime and Punishment
A new book, Lethal Rejection: Stories on Crime and Punishment, edited and written in part by American University criminologist Robert Johnson and student Sonia Tabriz, features an array of fiction and poetry on crime and punishment written by prisoners, academics, and students of criminology. The book includes a number of stories about capital punishment. Jocelyn Pollock, Professor of Criminal Justice at Texas State University, writes in the preface, “[H]umans have always…
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Jun 22, 2009
ARBITRARINESS: A Death Penalty Prosecution Instead Settles with a Short Sentence After Misconduct is Revealed
A prosecutor’s misconduct related to a Kentucky capital murder case led the state to accept a plea bargain with the defendant in which he now faces a sentence of 10 years with the possibility of immediate parole. Officials say Assistant Commonweath Attorney Ruth Lerner compromised the death penalty prosecution against Cory Gibson by cutting a deal with a witness against Gibson. Lerner had not disclosed a deal made with the witness in a separate robbery case in exchange for…
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