Publications & Testimony

Recent revelations about the source of drugs used in lethal injections in the U.S. reveal the extent to which some states have gone in their pursuit of the deadly chemicals. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, Arizona obtained its three lethal injection drugs from Dream Pharma, Ltd., a small pharmaceutical company in west London located in the back of a driving school. Clive Stafford Smith, director of Reprieve, a British organization offering legal support to death row inmates…

In a recent article in the Peoria Journal Star, Jennifer Bishop Jenkins and Kathleen Bishop Becker, both of whom had family members murdered, called on Illinois’s state legislature to end the death penalty as a better way of helping victims. Becker and Jenkins wrote, “When our family members were murdered, issues like crime prevention, victims’ rights, and the death penalty stopped being merely hypothetical… it’s because we prioritize victims and public safety that we support replacing the…

Statement from the FDA Regarding Oversight of Lethal Injection Drugs and Release of Foreign Shipments to States: Jan. 4, 2011 “FDA releases this shipment, which is being imported by or on behalf of state correctional authorities. In keeping with established practice, FDA does not review or approve products for the purpose of lethal injection. FDA has not reviewed the products in this shipment to determine their identity, safety, effectiveness, purity, or any other characteristics.”

The information and analysis in DPIC’s recent 2010 Year-End Report were reported in hundreds of media outlets around the country. Among the papers writing editorials on the trends cited in the report were the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Colorado’s Aurora Sentinel. The Times’ editorial, “Still Cruel, Less Usual,” noted, “A report released this month by the Death Penalty Information Center counted 46 executions in 2010. That is nearly 12 percent fewer than a year ago, and down…

Following the release of the report from the New Hampshire Commission to Study the Death Penalty, New Hampshire’s Concord Monitor called for an end to capital punishment in the state. The Commission concluded a year of public hearings and careful study and chose by a 12 – 10 vote to recommend neither expanding nor abolishing the death penalty. However, the Monitor pointed out that the evidence presented to the commission was primarily in favor of repealing the death penalty. One of the many…

On May 29, 2007, a jury in Charleston, West Virginia, recommended death sentences for George Lecco and Valerie Friend for the murder of Carla Collins in order to protect their drug ring. Prosecutors maintained that Lecco arranged to have Collins killed and that Friend did the shooting in 2005. Formal sentencing was scheduled for August 23. The judge is required to follow the jury’s recommendation. These are the first federal death sentences in West Virginia since the federal law was reinstated…

Despite assistance from the county-supported statewide Capital Crimes Defense Fund, local officials in several Idaho counties are troubled by the economic burden of prosecuting death penalty cases. They are also concerned about a recent federal appellate court ruling that could overturn all existing state death sentences because Idaho’s sentencing procedures were deemed unconstitutional. Cassia County Commissioner Paul Christensen said that in addition to the millions of dollars spent to…