Publications & Testimony

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…

Police chiefs from around the country are expressing fears that crime rates will increase as law enforcement resources are cut during the economic downturn. In Sacramento, California, homicides are up 43% and assaults on police officers are up 13%, while the department was forced to eliminate its vice unit. In Phoenix, Arizona, a lack of funds is causing police vacancies to go unfilled. Similar concerns were expressed by police chiefs in Maryland and Virginia. Chuck Wexler, Executive Director…

On October 6, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Connick v. Thompson. John Thompson, who was released from death row in 2003 after newly discovered evidence undermined his murder conviction, sued the New Orleans District Attorney’s office for failing to train its attorneys about their legal obligation to turn over evidence that could help defendants prove their innocence. Thompson’s lawyers discovered that prosecutors deliberately covered up inconsistencies in eyewitness statements and…

In a recent op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, two leading conservatives declared that the death penalty in the United States “is no longer a necessary form of punishment.” Richard A. Viguerie (pictured) and Brent Bozell urged their fellow conservatives to consider that the death penalty “is an expensive government program with the power to kill people.” “Conservatives,” they wrote, “don’t trust the government is always capable, competent, or fair with far lighter tasks.” They particularly…

In an October 2010 interview on National Public Radio, then newly-retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said he particularly regretted one vote during his 35 years on the high court — his 1976 vote to uphold the death penalty in Gregg v. Georgia. Stevens remarked, “I thought at the time … that if the universe of defendants eligible for the death penalty is sufficiently narrow so that you can be confident that the defendant really merits that severe punishment, that the death penalty was…