Publications & Testimony
Items: 4291 — 4300
Dec 09, 2008
Tennessee Death Penalty Committee Recommends Changes in Representation Standards
A legislative committee created to study the death penalty in Tennessee has recommended ways to ensure capital cases are handled fairly and effectively. The committee approved a resolution that asks lawmakers to create a statewide authority whose duties would include identifying lawyers experienced in capital cases, raising the standard pay for such attorneys, and monitoring their caseloads. Thomas Lee, a Tennessee attorney on the committee, said such an authority would help…
Read MoreDec 09, 2008
Military death sentence case may head back for Supreme Court certiorari decision
Dec. 9, 2008US MILTARY:Military death sentence case may head back for Supreme Court certiorari decisionFor the 1st time in half a century, the President approved a military death sentence this summer. Army Private Ronald Gray was sentenced to death by a military court-martial panel in 1988 after convicting him of two murders, three rapes, an attempted murder, and a host of other crimes. A military death sentence triggers automatic appeals. In Gray’s case, his conviction went before the Army…
Read MoreDec 08, 2008
NEW VOICES: Law Enforcement Officer Changed Views Because of Death Penalty’s Risks
Michael May served as a Baltimore City police officer and as a military police officer. He formerly supported capital punishment, but changed his stance upon learning of innocent people who had been sentenced to death. Mr. May testified earlier this yar before the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment. He recently published an op-ed in the Baltimore Examiner explaining how his views changed and why he supports for repeal of Maryland’s death penalty. The full…
Read MoreDec 05, 2008
STUDIES: Higher Murder Rates Related to Gun Laws
States with softer gun laws have higher rates of handgun killings, fatal shootings of police officers, and sales of weapons that were used in crimes in other states, according to a study due out in January 2009. The study’s 38-page report, underwritten by a group of over 300 mayors and obtained by the Washington Post, focused on tracking guns used in crimes back to the retailers that first sold…
Read MoreDec 05, 2008
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Releases Report on Death Penalty Developments in 2008
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Releases Report on Death Penalty Developments in 2008 “Average” Number of Executions Carried Out in Record Time as New DeathSentences Reach Lowest Level in Texas in 30 Years(Austin, Texas) — Today the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty(TCADP) released its annual report on death penalty developments statewide, inadvance of the December 7 anniversary of the resumption of executions in Texasin 1982. According to the report,…
Read MoreDec 04, 2008
BOOKS: Against the Death Penalty: International Initiatives and Implications
A new book, Against the Death Penalty: International Initiatives and Implications, features leading scholars on the death penalty and their analysis of both the promotion and demise of the punishment around the world. It considers the current efforts to restrict the death penalty within the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the African Commission, and the Commonwealth Caribbean. It also investigates perspectives and questions for retentionist countries with a focus on the United States,…
Read MoreDec 03, 2008
BOOKS: Jesus on Death Row
Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor and present faculty member at a conservative Christian law school in Texas, has written Jesus on Death Row: The Trial of Jesus and American Capital Punishment.
Read MoreDec 03, 2008
STUDIES: Racial Disparities in the Capital of Capital Punishment
A new study published in the Houston Law Review, “Racial Disparities in the Capital of Capital Punishment,” explores the relationship of race to death sentencing in Harris County (Houston), Texas. In the study, Prof. Scott Phillips of the University of Denver explores patterns involving the race of both victims and defendants, while controlling for other variables. Phillips concludes death sentences were more likely to be imposed in cases with white victims than in those with black victims,…
Read MoreDec 01, 2008
Washington State’s Death Penalty Part of a Broken System
The state of Washington has carried out 4 executions in 45 years, the last one being in 2001 when James Elledge waived his appeals and was executed. Some prosecutors, legislators, and defense attorneys are questioning the value of keeping the system. Kitsap County Prosecutor Russell Hauge (pictured) supports the death penalty but has decided against seeking it in a recent case because he felt the appeals process would simply never end. “In terms of justice, the worst thing that could…
Read MoreNov 26, 2008
Gap Between the Murder Rate of Death Penalty States and Non-Death Penalty States Remains Large
States with the death penalty have consistently had higher murder rates than states without the death penalty. If the death penalty was acting as a deterrent to murder, one might expect that the gap between these two groups would lessen over a long period of time as states using the death penalty obtained an advantage in reducing murders. However, the gap has grown larger over the past 18 years. In 2007, states with the death penalty had a 42% higher murder rate than states without the death…
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