Publications & Testimony

Utah’s Supreme Court recent­ly expressed con­cern that the lack of qual­i­fied defense attor­neys for indi­gent death row inmates could unrav­el cap­i­tal sen­tences. In a unan­i­mous deci­sion in the case of death row inmate Michael Archuleta, Associate Chief Justice Michael Wilkins (pic­tured) said the court might be forced to reverse cap­i­tal sen­tences because the low pay and the com­plex­i­ty of such cas­es have shrunk the pool of Utah attor­neys who will accept them. ​“It…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in The Virginian-Pilot points to the prob­lem of arbi­trari­ness in apply­ing the death penal­ty. The edi­to­r­i­al asks, ​“Is it right to look at who the vic­tims were? Is it fair to con­sid­er the strength of the evi­dence and the time and resources required to pur­sue the death penal­ty, a cost­ly process? Does it make a crime less impor­tant, a vic­tim’s life less mem­o­rable, if pros­e­cu­tors decide that life in a tiny prison cell is pun­ish­ment enough for the killer?” The editorial…

Professor Bruce Winick of the Miami School of Law has writ­ten an arti­cle argu­ing that the Supreme Court should extend the pro­tec­tion it present­ly offers to those with men­tal retar­da­tion and juve­niles to offend­ers with severe men­tal ill­ness, as well. In The Supreme Court’s Emerging Death Penalty Jurisprudence: Severe Mental Illness as the Next Frontier, Winick reviews the High Court’s analy­sis of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment under the Eighth Amendment with a focus on when the Court has…

The Death Penalty Information Center offers unique resources on its Web page Special from DPIC. Visitors will find use­ful fea­tures and research materials,…

On November 3, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear a non-cap­i­tal case from Alaska in which the defen­dant asserts that the con­sti­tu­tion requires the state to allow DNA test­ing on evi­dence from his tri­al so that he can prove his inno­cence. In District Attorney’s Office v Osborne (No 08 – 6), the Court will ini­tial­ly con­sid­er whether William Osborne may bring a civ­il rights claim (under 42 USC 1983) demon­strat­ing that the state has vio­lat­ed his con­sti­tu­tion­al right to due…

The num­ber of fed­er­al death sen­tences has increased in the past sev­en years, while the num­ber of state death sen­tences has declined. The size of the fed­er­al death row has tripled since 2000, while the num­ber of peo­ple on state death rows has dropped. There has also been a marked increase in the num­ber of peo­ple on the fed­er­al death row from states that do not have their own death penalty…

A North Carolina pros­e­cu­tor has announced he will seek the death penal­ty in a case where the vic­tim spoke out against cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and her fam­i­ly oppos­es it. Before her death, col­lege stu­dent and University of North Carolina stu­dent body pres­i­dent Eve Carson told fel­low stu­dents gath­ered for a death penal­ty dis­cus­sion that she did not agree with the death penal­ty due to the flaws in its appli­ca­tion. She not­ed, ​“It doesn’t work, in my opin­ion.” After Carson’s mur­der, her…

Jim Trainum, a police offi­cer of over 25 years, recent­ly dis­cussed how shocked he was to dis­cov­er how he and oth­er offi­cers were able to obtain a con­fes­sion to mur­der from an inno­cent woman. Trainum explained, ​“Reviewing the tapes years lat­er, I saw that we had fall­en into a clas­sic trap. We ignored evi­dence that our sus­pect might not have been guilty, and dur­ing the inter­ro­ga­tion we inad­ver­tent­ly fed her details of the crime that she repeat­ed back to us in her…

Two dozen exon­er­at­ed ex-death row pris­on­ers from across the coun­try will hold a news con­fer­ence on October 31 in Austin to call for the estab­lish­ment of a statewide com­mis­sion on wrong­ful con­vic­tions and a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in Texas. The 24 men spent a com­bined total of near­ly 200 years on death row before being freed. They will be joined by State Rep. Elliot Naishtat and for­mer Bexar County District Attorney Sam Millsap…