Publications & Testimony

A recent state analysis of the costs of the death penalty in Indiana found the average cost to a county for a trial and direct appeal in a capital case was over ten times more than a life-without-parole case. The average death case cost $449,887, while the average cost of a life-without-parole case was only $42,658. The study, prepared by the Legislative Services Agency for the General Assembly, found that even while factoring the longer incarceration period for those sentenced to life without…

Texas District Judge Kevin Fine scheduled a hearing in a death penalty case to consider whether there is a substantial risk that Texas’s death penalty laws could result in the execution of an innocent person. The hearing, expected to last two weeks, will likely include testimony from experts around the country. Casey Kiernan, one of the attorneys for the defendant, John Green, filed a pre-trial motion regarding the issue of innocence, which led to the hearing. Kiernan said, “I think everybody…

On June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court returned a death penalty case to the Georgia Supreme Court to reconsider whether the failures of the defendant’s lawyer probably affected the sentence he received. Demarcus Sears was sentenced to death in 1993 for the murder of a woman in Cobb County. Sears’ attorneys attempted to convince jurors to spare his life by saying that he came from a stable and loving family who would be devastated if he received the death penalty. However, the defense lawyers failed…

On June 23 – 24, U.S. District Judge William T. Moore heard new testimony in the case of death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis, who was given an unusual chance by the U.S. Supreme Court to “clearly establish” his innocence after almost 20 years. Davis was convicted in 1991 of the shooting of a Savannah police officer based on eyewitness testimony that identified him as the shooter. During the recent hearings in federal court, four witnesses recanted their original testimony, saying that they were…

On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Billy Joe Magwood, an Alabama defendant convicted of a 1979 murder whose challenge to the state’s death penalty law had been ruled untimely by lower courts. Magwood’s first death sentence was overturned, but he was sentenced to death a second time. When Magwood filed a habeas petition challenging his new death sentence, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that Magwood’s challenge to his new death sentence was an…

Judge Norman Fletcher served on the Georgia Supreme Court and was in the majority that upheld Troy Davis’s original conviction and death sentence on direct appeal. However, Judge Fletcher has noted he was not on the court after many of the witnesses from Davis’s trial recanted their testimony, and he probably would have voted in favor of a new evidentiary hearing for Davis if he was on the court today. Judge Fletcher recently wrote about the wisdom of retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stevens…

Joseph P. Nadeau, who served on New Hampshire’s Supreme Court for six years and as a judge for 37 years, recently testified before the state’s death penalty commission about his opposition to the practice. In an op-ed, Judge Nadeau summarized the moral and practical reasons why he believes capital punishment should be repealed. “Our thinking evolves, as people, technology, and societies progress,” he said. “And what is acceptable at one time in our history may become unwelcome at another. So we…

Amnesty International recently released its annual report on international abuses and progress in the field of human rights: “The State of the World’s Human Rights.” The report covers January to December 2009 and addresses human rights issues in every country around the world. The report also highlights countries’ involvement in international and regional human rights treaties. Among the nations in the Americas, the United States had the most active death penalty practices with over 100 new…