Publications & Testimony

The recent 19 – 17 vote in the Connecticut Senate to abol­ish the death penal­ty was made pos­si­ble by three sen­a­tors who moved from sup­port­ing the death penal­ty to oppos­ing it. Sen. Gary LeBeau had long favored the death penal­ty, part­ly because of​“polit­i­cal cal­cu­la­tions.” His stance shift­ed in the last cou­ple of years wit­ness­ing a series of high-pro­­file exon­er­a­tions of inno­cent peo­ple. At 61, LeBeau, a retired school­teacher, came…

The death penal­ty in California is enor­mous­ly expen­sive com­pared to the sen­tence of life with­out parole. One death penal­ty case has already tak­en 28 years and may cost $5 mil­lion dol­lars. Chief Assistant Attorney General Dane Gillette, head of the crim­i­nal divi­sion, said Michael Ray Burgener’s case has been delayed because of legal­ly required reviews.​“When you have a new judge, you have to have that judge take a look at the record and base their deci­sion on the review of the…

Connecticut​’s Senate gave final leg­isla­tive approval to a bill that would abol­ish the death penal­ty in an ear­ly morn­ing vote on May 22. After a near­ly 11-hour debate, the Senate vot­ed 19 – 17 to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, eight days after the House of Representatives approved the bill 90 – 56. The bill will now go to Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s desk. When asked the day before its pas­sage if she would veto the bill, Rell said,​“I haven’t seen it, but you know how I feel…

On May 20, twen­­ty-sev­en for­mer judges and pros­e­cu­tors from across the polit­i­cal spec­trum filed an ami­cus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in sup­port of Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis. Signers of the ami­cus brief include Larry Thompson (Deputy Attorney General of the United States, 2001 – 2003), for­mer Congressman Bob Barr (R‑GA; U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, 1986 – 1990);…

On May 18, the U.S. Supreme Court grant­ed cer­tio­rari in two death penal­ty cas­es. Both cas­es are like­ly to be argued in the fall. The Court accept­ed the defen­dan­t’s peti­tion in Wood v. Allen (No. 08 – 9156), a case from Alabama. Holly Wood claimed inef­fec­tive assis­tance of coun­sel, men­tal retar­da­tion, and dis­crim­i­na­tion in the jury selec­tion process dur­ing his tri­al. After the tri­al, state and defense experts found that Wood,…

Daniel Wade Moore was acquit­ted of all charges by a jury in Alabama on May 14. Moore was orig­i­nal­ly found guilty of the mur­der and sex­u­al assault of Karen Tipton in 2002. The judge over­ruled the jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion of a life sen­tence and instead sen­tenced him to death in January 2003, call­ing the mur­der one of the worst ever in the coun­ty. A new tri­al was ordered in 2003 because of evi­dence with­held by the pros­e­cu­tion. A sec­ond tri­al in 2008 end­ed in a mistrial…

James Fry, a for­mer Dallas County Assistant District Attorney, changed his mind about the death penal­ty after learn­ing that he suc­cess­ful­ly pros­e­cut­ed an inno­cent man for rape. The defen­dant, Charles Chatman, was cleared 27 years lat­er by DNA. In an op-ed in the Dallas Morning News, Fry asks,​“For years, Texas has led the nation in the num­ber of exe­cu­tions. Why don’t we now strive to lead the nation in a new direc­tion: reform­ing a jus­tice sys­tem in urgent…

Missouri’s Republican House Majority Leader Steven Tilley says Governor Jay Nixon should com­mute the death sen­tence of Dennis Skillicorn, who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on May 21. Citing rev­e­la­tions that anoth­er sus­pect com­mit­ted the mur­der while Skillicorn was unaware of the mur­der plan, Tilley said,​“Certainly, that would be enough rea­son­able doubt for me that I would be very con­cerned if this state exe­cut­ed that indi­vid­ual.” …

…

The state of Tennessee has dropped all charges against Paul House, a death row inmate first con­vict­ed in 1986. House was accused of the rape and mur­der of Carolyn Muncey based large­ly on cir­cum­stan­tial evi­dence. DNA evi­dence used against him at tri­al was lat­er found to belong to Muncey’s hus­band. In House v. Bell, the U.S. Supreme Court con­sid­ered the new DNA tesing and ques­tions about blood stains on House’s clothes.