Publications & Testimony

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…

The Constitution Project has released a com­pre­hen­sive report on the U.S. sys­tem of rep­re­sen­ta­tion for indi­gent defen­dants,​“Justice Denied: America’s Continuing Neglect of Our Constitutional Right to Counsel.” The report finds deep flaws in the country’s pub­lic defense sys­tem and makes 22 rec­om­men­da­tions for state and fed­er­al offi­cials for reform­ing the sys­tem. Among the prob­lems that this study iden­ti­fies are excessive…

On April 20, Colorado’s House vot­ed 33 – 32 to repeal the death penal­ty. The bill, which now heads to the Senate, would shift funds used to pros­e­cute cas­es and main­tain the death penal­ty to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for clos­ing unsolved mur­der cas­es. Proponents of the bill believe the state would save close to $4 mil­lion by repeal­ing the death penal­ty, and dozens of fam­i­ly mem­bers with unsolved mur­der cas­es tes­ti­fied that those funds could be…

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…

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…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit denied habeas cor­pus relief to a Georgia death row inmate who claims he is inno­cent and who has received inter­na­tion­al sup­port. In a 2 – 1 deci­sion, the court held that Troy Davis could have pre­sent­ed most of his new evi­dence ear­li­er and that the evi­dence did not offer clear and con­vinc­ing proof of his inno­cence. Hence, the court did not con­sid­er his free-stand­ing claim of inno­cence on its…

Judge Boyce Martin, Chief Justice of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, recent­ly con­curred in a cap­i­tal case and stat­ed his con­clu­sion that the death penal­ty sys­tem is now bro­ken beyond repair. Writing in Wiles v. Bagley on April 14, Judge Martin said that the death penalty is ​“so fun­da­men­tal­ly flawed at its very core that it is beyond repair.” He con­tin­ued,​“Now in my thir­ti­eth year as a judge on…

The Justice Project has released a new report enti­tled​“Improving Prosecutorial Accountability: A Policy Review.” The report details some of the caus­es of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct and makes rec­om­men­da­tions for reform. With a par­tic­u­lar focus on pre­vent­ing pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al errors that lead to wrong­ful con­vic­tions, the study explores how a lack of trans­paren­cy and account­abil­i­ty has allowed pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct to persist nationwide.

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.”…

The Virginia Senate upheld Gov. Tim Kaine’s vetoes of pro­pos­als to expand cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment on April 8. The Senate vote fell short of the two-thirds need­ed to over­ride Gov. Kaine’s vetoes of the bills that would have extend­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment to mur­der accom­plices who were not the actu­al killer and to those who kill on-duty fire mar­shals and aux­il­iary police offi­cers. This marks the third con­sec­u­tive year that Gov. Kaine has vetoed bills to expand…