Publications & Testimony

Although Texas leads the coun­try by far with the most exe­cu­tions (436) since the rein­state­ment of the death penal­ty in 1976, it is sec­ond to Oklahoma in terms of exe­cu­tions as a frac­tion of the state’s pop­u­la­tion. The oth­er lead­ing exe­cu­tion states on a per capi­ta basis are Delaware, Virginia, Missouri, and Arkansas. The full rank­ing of exe­cu­tions per capi­ta by state may be found here. In 2009, there have been 22 exe­cu­tions as of April 27,…

The Angolite, an award-win­ning mag­a­zine pro­duced by the inmates at Angola Prison in Louisiana, recent­ly pub­lished an exten­sive review of the devel­op­ments in the death penal­ty in 2008. The arti­cle by Lane Nelson addressed nation­wide trends, Supreme Court deci­sions, the issues of cost, the risks of exe­cut­ing inno­cent peo­ple, and the prob­lem of inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion. The arti­cle con­clud­ed, “[N]ational debates, leg­isla­tive stud­ies, court rul­ings and blue-ribbon commission…

Georgia’s sys­tem of rep­re­sen­ta­tion in death penal­ty cas­es is in cri­sis because of insuf­fi­cient fund­ing and cas­es are grind­ing to a halt. Almost 1 in 5 of all pend­ing cap­i­tal cas­es in the state are stalled because of a lack of funds to pay for defense work. ​“We can’t defend the case with­out any mon­ey,” said James Yancey, one death penal­ty defense lawyer. ​“The experts we need won’t work for free.” Forsyth Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Bagley called it ​“a constitutional crisis,”…

Bridget Lee spent nine months in jail in Alabama after being charged with the mur­der of her new­born child. Prosecutors filed cap­i­tal mur­der charges based on an autop­sy per­formed by Dr. Corinne Stern. Stern’s autop­sy con­clud­ed the baby had been suf­fo­cat­ed because of bruis­es on the fore­head and mouth. But when Lee’s attor­neys ques­tioned the autop­sy, the District Attorney had oth­er experts review the case, and six dif­fer­ent foren­sics experts found the baby was…

Texas Senior District Judge C.C. Cooke, who sen­tenced three defen­dants to death, now finds the sen­tence of life with­out parole ​“more palat­able.” After a case where he doubt­ed the defendant’s guilt, Judge Cooke said, ““To be hon­est, that’s when I start­ed hav­ing some doubts about try­ing cap­i­tal mur­der cas­es. I tend­ed to believe his sto­ry.” The judge con­tin­ued, ​“I would have been more com­fort­able if he could have been locked away for life with­out parole.” In addition to…