Publications & Testimony

A recent article in Second Class Justice, a weblog dedicated to addressing unfairness and discrimination in the criminal justice system, highlighted that the death penalty continues to be arbitrarily applied in the United States. Citing figures from the American Judicature Society, author Robert Smith revealed that only 10% of U.S. counties accounted for all of the death sentences imposed between 2004 and 2009, and only 5% of the counties accounted for all death sentences between 2007 and 2009.

Lawyers for Cameron Todd Willingham’s family recently presented expert testimony at a court of inquiry in Texas to determine whether Willingham was wrongfully convicted and executed for starting a fire that killed his children. The lawyers presented testimony from nine experts who have reviewed evidence presented by fire marshals and found “many critical errors,” as one report stated. Gerald Hurst, who published a report regarding the evidence in the case, argued that the evidence actually…

Lawyers for Jeffrey Landrigan, an Arizona death row inmate scheduled for execution on October 26, have filed a motion asking courts to compel the state to reveal its source of a drug to be used in his lethal injection. Despite a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, Arizona recently announced that it has obtained new supplies of the drug. The announcement came the same day that California filed a notice in federal court that it had obtained the same drug with an expiration date of 2014.

On October 13, law enforcement officers from the U.S. and Europe held the first public discussion about whether the death penalty helps or hurts in keeping citizens safe, assists healing for victims, and uses crime-fighting resources efficiently. The panelists addressed issues such as deterrence, closure to victims’ families, and costs in relation to alternatives. Former Detective Superintendent Bob Denmark of Lancashire Constabulary, England, who investigated over 100 homicides in the U.K.

On October 13, 2010, officials from the U.S. and Europe held what may have been the first international forum of law enforcement officers on the merits of the death penalty in reducing violent crime. The officers discussed whether capital punishment actually helps to keep citizens safe, assists healing for victims, and uses crime-fighting resources efficiently. The panelists addressed issues such as deterrence, closure to victims’ families, and costs as compared to alternative sentences. The…

On October 13, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Skinner v. Switzer. Hank Skinner was convicted of murdering his girlfriend and her two sons in 1993 in their Texas home. He has always maintained his innocence, and there is untested DNA evidence that may prove someone else committed the crime. Some DNA testing was conducted before trial, placing Skinner in the house where his girlfriend lived, a fact he does not dispute. Although Texas has a law allowing some post-conviction DNA…

“The Search for Lofie Louise” by Helen B. Anthony tells the true story of Louise Peete, a woman convicted of two murders in California over two decades apart in the early 1900s. She denied her guilt in both instances, and her story and trial were widely covered by the media in California. Peete received a life sentence for the first murder and a death sentence for the second; she was executed on April 11, 1947. The author captures the history of the death penalty in an earlier era. Today, the…