Publications & Testimony

An edi­to­r­i­al The Daily Astorian, con­trasts the state’s use of funds for the death penal­ty to the state’s reduc­tion in fund­ing for edu­ca­tion. ​“The glar­ing con­trast to our unques­tion­ing spend­ing on the death penal­ty — which Judge Lipscomb called ​‘this large­ly futile attempt’ — is our dis­in­vest­ment in edu­ca­tion,” the paper not­ed. ​“Investment in edu­ca­tion is about the future, and it is about hope. Investment in pris­ons and espe­cial­ly in the death penal­ty is about a final…

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…