Publications & Testimony

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…

“That Bird Has My Wings” is a new book by Jarvis Jay Masters, an inmate on San Quentin​’s 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…

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…

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…

Michael Toney, who recent­ly became the 136^th 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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…