Publications & Testimony

Items: 4161 — 4170

Oct 26, 2009

Leading Law Group Withdraws Model Death Penalty Laws Because System is Unfixable

The Council of the American Law Institute (ALI) recent­ly vot­ed to with­draw a sec­tion of its Model Penal Code con­cerned with cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment because of the ​“cur­rent intractable insti­tu­tion­al and struc­tur­al obsta­cles to ensur­ing a min­i­mal­ly ade­quate sys­tem for admin­is­ter­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.” The Council based its deci­sion on a study it com­mis­sioned to look into the prac­tice of the death penal­ty since the rec­om­men­da­tions were made in the Model Penal Code.

Read More

Oct 23, 2009

LAW REVIEW: Death Penalty Stories

The University of Missouri-Kansas City Law Review recent­ly pub­lished a sym­po­sium issue of Death Penalty Stories, high­light­ing the role of the nar­ra­tive in the defense of death penal­ty cas­es. The com­pi­la­tion includes con­tri­bu­tions from lit­i­ga­tors who have used per­sua­sive nar­ra­tive in sup­port of a life sen­tence. Russell Stetler’s The Unknown Story of a Motherless Child chron­i­cles the case of Edgar H., who was con­vict­ed of killing four men in California. Edgar’s…

Read More

Oct 22, 2009

Court Pressure in Arizona Leads to Settlements in Death Cases

A grow­ing back­log of death penal­ty cas­es and delays in start­ing tri­als in Arizona’s Maricopa County has forced Superior Court judges to apply pres­sure on both sides by refus­ing to post­pone tri­al dates and demand­ing that attor­neys dis­cuss set­tle­ments. The back­log came as a result of County Attorney Andrew Thomas’s aggres­sive pur­suit of death sen­tences in more than 120 cas­es since tak­ing office in 2005. The num­ber of death penal­ty defen­dants grew faster than…

Read More

Oct 21, 2009

NEW VOICES: Former Texas Governor Now Expresses Doubts About Death Penalty

Mark White, a for­mer gov­er­nor of Texas and strong sup­port­er of the death penal­ty, recent­ly expressed seri­ous reser­va­tions about the prac­tice in Texas. ​“There is a very strong case to be made for a review of our death penal­ty statutes and even look at the pos­si­bil­i­ty of hav­ing life with­out parole so we don’t look up one day and deter­mine that we as the State of Texas have exe­cut­ed some­one who is in fact inno­cent,” he said. White was…

Read More

Oct 20, 2009

STUDIES: Disparities in Legal Representation in Harris County, Texas

Scott Phillips, a pro­fes­sor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Denver, recent­ly pub­lished a study that revealed dis­par­i­ties in who receives the death penal­ty inTexas. Phillips stud­ied the 504 death penal­ty cas­es that occurred between 1992 and 1999 in Harris County (Houston and sur­round­ing areas). Harris County is the largest juris­dic­tion in the United States to use a court-appoint­ment sys­tem for select­ing lawyers to defend…

Read More

Oct 20, 2009

DPIC Releases New Report on Costs of the Death Penalty and Police Chiefs’ Views

The Death Penalty Information Center has released its lat­est report, ​“Smart on Crime: Reconsidering the Death Penalty in a Time of Economic Crisis.” The report com­bines an analy­sis of the costs of the death penal­ty with a new­ly released nation­al poll of police chiefs who put cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment at the bot­tom of their law enforcement…

Read More

Oct 16, 2009

NEW VOICES: Judge Says Death Penalty ​“too fraught with variables to survive”

Retired Federal Appeals Court Judge H. Lee Sarokin recent­ly offered a harsh cri­tique of the death penal­ty, espe­cial­ly chal­leng­ing the botched exe­cu­tion attempt of Romell Broom in Ohio in September. Citing moral­i­ty, arbi­trari­ness, and the dim prospects of clo­sure for the mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­lies, Judge Sarokin called the impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty an errat­ic and flawed process that should not be per­mit­ted to con­tin­ue. ​“The sys­tem is too fraught with vari­ables to survive.

Read More

Oct 15, 2009

Gallup Poll: Support for Death Penalty Remains Near 25-Year Low

The lat­est Gallup Poll on the death penal­ty shows 65% of Americans sup­port the death penal­ty, sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er than the 80% sup­port record­ed in 1994 and near the low­est sup­port of 64% in the past 25 years record­ed last year. Only 57% believe the death penal­ty is fair­ly applied, and 59% of Americans believe that an inno­cent per­son has been exe­cut­ed in the last five years. Gallup report­ed that sup­port for the death penal­ty is low­er if Americans are offered an explicit…

Read More

Oct 14, 2009

Supreme Court to Review Effect of ​“Gross Negligence” by Death Penalty Attorney

On October 13, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Holland v. Florida, a case rais­ing the ques­tion of ​“whether ​‘gross neg­li­gence’ by a state-appoint­ed defense attor­ney in a death penal­ty case pro­vides a basis for extend­ing the time to file a fed­er­al habeas chal­lenge, in a case where the habeas plea was filed late despite repeat­ed instruc­tions from the client.” (sco​tus​blog​.com). In his peti­tion for cer­tio­rari to the Court, the…

Read More

Oct 13, 2009

STUDIES: FBI Uniform Crime Report Finds Murder Rates Declined in 2008

The annu­al crime report released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed a decline in the nation­al mur­der rate. The rate dropped 4.7% in 2008 com­pared to 2007. Despite a region­al decline, the South still has the high­est mur­der rate among the four geo­graph­ic regions: 6.6 mur­ders per 100,000 peo­ple, high­er than the nation­al rate of 5.4. The Northeast still main­tains the low­est mur­der rate at 4.2. There were 16,272 mur­ders or non-neg­li­gent manslaugh­ters in…

Read More