Publications & Testimony

Items: 4181 — 4190


Oct 09, 2009

BOOKS: That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row

That Bird Has My Wings” is a new book by Jarvis Jay Masters, an inmate on San Quentins death row in California. In this mem­oir, Masters tells his sto­ry from an ear­ly life with his heron-addict­ed moth­er to an abu­sive fos­ter home. He describes his escape to the illu­so­ry free­dom of the streets and through lone­ly nights spent in bus sta­tions and juve­nile homes, and final­ly to life inside the walls of San Quentin Prison. Using the nub and filler from a…

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Oct 07, 2009

OPINION: Florida’s Death Penalty System Still Fraught with Problems’

A recent op-ed in the Florida Times-Union point­ed to con­tin­u­ing prob­lems in Florida’s death penal­ty sys­tem despite pri­or rec­om­men­da­tions for change in an American Bar Association report three years ago. The arti­cle was writ­ten by Raoul Cantero III, a for­mer Florida Supreme Court jus­tice appoint­ed by Gov. Jeb Bush, and Mark Schlakman, a senior pro­gram direc­tor for Florida State University’s Center for the Advancement of Human Rights. The authors state…

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Oct 06, 2009

Two More Exonerations From Death Row: 137th and 138th Persons Freed in Oklahoma

Two for­mer death row inmates who were charged with mur­der in a 1993 dri­ve-by shoot­ing were released on October 2 after spend­ing near­ly 14 years in prison, includ­ing years on Oklahoma’s death row. District Attorney David Prater dropped charges against Yancy Douglas (left),35, and Paris Powell (right), 36, after decid­ing the state’s key wit­ness was unre­li­able. Ethically, and on my duty, I could not pro­ceed in this case and had to dismiss it,”…

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Oct 06, 2009

Michael Toney, Recently Exonerated from Death Row in Texas, Dies in Car Crash

Michael Toney, who recent­ly became the 136th per­son exon­er­at­ed and freed from death row since 1973, died in a car crash on October 3 in East Texas. He had been released from jail one month ago on September 2 after the state dropped all charges against him for a 1985 bomb­ing that killed three peo­ple. Toney’s con­vic­tion was over­turned on December 17, 2008 by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals because the pros­e­cu­tion sup­pressed evi­dence relat­ing to the…

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Oct 05, 2009

Ohio Executions Put on Hold; Governor Concurs

Lawrence Reynolds, who was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on October 8 in Ohio, received a stay today (Oct. 5) from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The court’s stay was based on unre­solved issues in Ohio’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col that were brought to the sur­face by the unsuc­cess­ful exe­cu­tion of Romell Broom on September 15. The major­i­ty wrote: These dis­turb­ing issues give rise to at least two ques­tions: first, whether Ohio is…

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Oct 02, 2009

STUDIES: Errors by Texas Medical Examiners Led to Wrongful Convictions

A recent inves­ti­ga­ton by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram uncov­ered a series of mis­takes by med­ical exam­in­ers in Texas. Medical exam­in­ers have goofed up eye col­or and gen­der. They’ve made mis­takes on the loca­tions of scars or tat­toos, described gall­blad­ders and appen­dix­es that had long since been removed – even con­fused one body for anoth­er,” not­ed the sto­ry. Webb County Chief Medical Examiner Corinne Stern was crit­i­cized for an autop­sy she per­formed on an infant while…

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Oct 01, 2009

Texas Governor Replaces Members of Commission Examining Possible Wrongful Execution

On September 30, Texas Governor Rick Perry replaced the chair­man and two mem­bers of a state com­mis­sion that is inves­ti­gat­ing whether inac­cu­rate evi­dence of arson was pre­sent­ed at the tri­al of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was exe­cut­ed in 2004. The state’s Forensic Science Commission was sched­uled to con­duct a pub­lic hear­ing in two days and receive tes­ti­mo­ny from Craig Beyler, a nation­al­ly known expert who called the Willingham inves­ti­ga­tion slip­shod,” and…

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Sep 30, 2009

NEW RESOURCES: Death Row Database Now Available

A new data­base of death row pris­on­ers in the U.S. is now avail­able on DPIC’s Web site. The data­base con­tains cur­rent sortable and search­able infor­ma­tion on death row inmates in each state, includ­ing their name, race, coun­ty, and date of birth. The infor­ma­tion in the data­base is also editable, mean­ing that indi­vid­u­als with knowl­edge of death row inmates may change or add new infor­ma­tion. This new data­base may be a use­ful tool in explor­ing how the death penal­ty is applied.

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Sep 29, 2009

NEW VOICES: Zachary’s Law’ Case Settles with a Life Sentence; Victim’s Family Given Finality

Todd Snider, the father of Zachary Snider, who was killed at age 10 by Christopher Stevens in Indiana, accept­ed final res­o­lu­tion of the case against Stevens when a set­tle­ment was reached for a sen­tence of life with­out parole. Our fam­i­ly has suf­fered enough and would like for this to be resolved once and for all,” Mr. Snider said about the life sen­tence. This will give our fam­i­ly final­i­ty. Chris Stevens will die in prison and will nev­er have the…

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Sep 28, 2009

EDITORIALS: High Cost of Death Row”

In an edi­to­r­i­al on September 28 in the New York Times, the paper called the death penal­ty an eco­nom­ic drain on gov­ern­ments with already bad­ly deplet­ed bud­gets.” Citing fig­ures from the Death Penalty Information Center, the Times not­ed that States waste mil­lions of dol­lars on win­ning death penal­ty ver­dicts, which require an expen­sive sec­ond tri­al, new wit­ness­es and long jury selec­tions. Death rows require extra secu­ri­ty and maintenance…

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