Publications & Testimony

A ground­break­ing study by Brandon Garrett and Peter Neufeld pub­lished in the Virginia Law Review explores erro­neous sci­en­tif­ic tes­ti­mo­ny by pros­e­cu­tion experts in the tri­als of defen­dants who were lat­er exon­er­at­ed through DNA test­ing. The research, ​“Invalid Forensic Science Testimony and Wrongful Convictions,” explored sero­log­i­cal analy­sis and micro­scop­ic hair com­par­i­son, bite mark evi­dence, shoe prints, soil, fiber, fingerprint comparisons,…

On April 1, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Harbison v. Bell that fed­er­al­ly appoint­ed coun­sel can rep­re­sent indi­gent cap­i­tal clients in state clemen­cy pro­ce­dures. The case, which was argued before the Supreme Court in January 2009, asked whether a fed­er­al law that pro­vides lawyers to indi­gent state death row inmates for parts of their appeal guar­an­tees them the con­tin­u­a­tion of that rep­re­sen­ta­tion through the state clemency…

According to a review by the Houston Chronicle, Texas attor­neys who failed to meet dead­lines in fil­ing their clients’ appeals for­feit­ed the final oppor­tu­ni­ty to appeal for at least 9 men, 6 of whom have already been exe­cut­ed. The fail­ures includ­ed lawyers who mis­cal­cu­lat­ed or mis­un­der­stood the dead­lines, com­put­er fail­ures, and human error. Many were dis­missed sim­ply because they were filed after busi­ness hours on the day of the deadline.

A new report released by The Justice Project,​“Convicting the Innocent: Texas Justice Derailed,” ana­lyzes the cas­es of 39 inno­cent Texans who col­lec­tive­ly spent more than 500 years in prison for crimes they did not com­mit. The study focus­es on these non-cap­i­­tal crimes as it rec­om­mends reforms Texas should imple­ment to improve the qual­i­ty of evi­dence used and reduce the risk of wrong­ful con­vic­tions. Eyewitness misiden­ti­fi­ca­tion was the lead­ing cause of…

UPDATE: JOSE BRISENO RECEIVED A STAY OF EXECUTION ON APRIL 2. Texas death row inmate Jose Briseno is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on April 7. However, a stream of let­ters and sup­port, includ­ing some from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice staff, fel­low pris­on­ers, and a net­work of peo­ple out­side of prison has been sent to the Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles ask­ing that his sen­tence be com­mut­ed to life. According to the clemency petition…

On March 26, the Maryland House of Delegates approved a bill requir­ing spe­cif­ic evi­dence of guilt if the death penal­ty is sought. The same bill was passed ear­li­er by the Senate, and the gov­er­nor sup­ports the leg­is­la­tion. Calling it a​“step for­ward,” Gov. O’Malley indi­cat­ed he will sign the bill, lim­it­ing cap­i­tal cas­es to those with bio­log­i­cal or DNA evi­dence of guilt, a video­taped con­fes­sion, or a video­tape link­ing the defen­dant to a homicide.

An update of a study by the ACLU of Northern California on the costs of the death penal­ty found addi­tion­al expens­es due to a net increase in the size of death row. The analysis found, ​“The 11 new addi­tions to death row add almost $1 mil­lion to the annu­al cost of hous­ing peo­ple on death row, now total­ing $61.2 mil­lion more each year than the cost of hous­ing in the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion. … The recent­ly approved state bud­get also includes $136…

A new report released by Amnesty International reveals that the world is mov­ing away from cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Amnesty’s annu­al report showed that only 59 nations retain the death penal­ty, and of those nations, only 25 used it in 2008. Among the nations still employ­ing the death penal­ty, China was the most pro­lif­ic with 1,718 exe­cu­tions, fol­lowed by Iran with 346, Saudi Arabia with 102, United States with 37, Pakistan with 36, and Iraq with 34. Argentina and…

John Connor, who served as chief spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor in Montana for 21 years and who pros­e­cut­ed five prison homi­cide cas­es, is now call­ing for the repeal of Montana’s death penal­ty. Connor orig­i­nal­ly believed that the death penal­ty was need­ed to keep cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers safe from inmates serv­ing life in prison with­out parole. But through his expe­ri­ence he found,​“The real­i­ty is that the death penal­ty is not, and nev­er has been,…

A cost assess­ment pre­pared for the New Mexico leg­is­la­ture pri­or to its vote on repeal­ing the death penal­ty indi­cat­ed some of the mon­ey that would be saved if the bill was passed. The state will save sev­er­al mil­lion dol­lars each year, accord­ing to the fis­cal impact report by the Public Defender Department. For exam­ple, in the case of State v. Young, the pub­lic defend­er office expend­ed $1.7 mil­lion. They esti­mat­ed that the total cost to the…