Publications & Testimony

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…

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals recent­ly ruled that a death row inmate who removed his only remain­ing eye and ate it​“is clear­ly​‘crazy,’ but he is also​‘sane’ under Texas law,” reject­ing his appeal. Death row inmate Andre Thomas had stabbed some of his fam­i­ly mem­bers and ripped their hearts out. He then walked into the Sherman Police Department, admit­ted to the killings, and said God told him to com­mit them. Shortly after his arrest, he…

Governor Bill Richardson signed the bill abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty in New Mexico on March 18. New Mexico now becomes the 15^th state to aban­don cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and the 3^rd in the last 2 years, fol­low­ing recent actions in New Jersey and New York in 2007. The new law sub­sti­tutes the pun­ish­ment of life with­out parole for the death penal­ty in future cas­es. In a state­ment, Gov. Richardson cit­ed the 130 inmates freed from…

SANTA FE — Governor Bill Richardson today signed House Bill 285, Repeal of the Death Penalty. The Governor’s remarks fol­low:Today marks the end of a long, per­son­al jour­ney for me and the issue of the death penal­ty.Throughout my adult life, I have been a firm believ­er in the death penal­ty as a just pun­ish­ment — in very rare instances, and only for the most heinouscrimes. I still believe that.But six years ago, when I took office as Governor of the State of New Mexico, I started to…

Many states are con­sid­er­ing bills to abol­ish, reform, or expand the death penal­ty dur­ing cur­rent leg­isla­tive ses­sions. Some recent devel­op­ments include: New Mexico​’s bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty passed the House and Senate and is await­ing Gov. Richardson’s deci­sion and sig­na­ture, like­ly to come on March 18. In Colorado, a bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty and use the resources to pur­sue cold cas­es passed the House Judiciary…

Retired Washington State Supreme Court Justice Robert F. Utter recent­ly wrote an opin­ion piece argu­ing that the con­tin­ued use of the death penal­ty fails to serve jus­tice, pub­lic safe­ty or the pub­lic purse — and should be aban­doned. Justice Utter resigned from the high court after 23 years in 1995 because of his con­cerns about the death penal­ty. Justice Utter wrote recent­ly in the Seattle Times,​“My orig­i­nal rea­sons for res­ig­na­tion still apply. I then…

The New Mexico Senate vot­ed on March 13 to repeal the death penal­ty and replace it with a sen­tence of life with­out parole. The vote was 24 – 18. The House of Representatives had pre­vi­ous­ly vot­ed in favor of repeal. The bill will now go to New Mexico’s Governor Bill Richardson for his sig­na­ture. He has not announced whether he will sign the bill, but has indi­cat­ed a new open­ness to the repeal effort. Many vic­tims’ fam­i­lies mem­bers in New Mexico had…

South Carolina and California recent­ly fur­ther cuts in their judi­cial sys­tem in the wake of the eco­nom­ic cri­sis. California, the nation’s largest state judi­cia­ry, faces short­ened court hours, fur­loughed employ­ees, loss of judge­ships, and less mon­ey for state-fund­ed lawyers.​“Courts may be open few­er hours. The irony is that in eco­nom­ic down­turns the courts get more child sup­port dis­putes, fos­ter care fil­ings, and…

Several legal author­i­ties and pub­lic offi­cials are call­ing on Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear to sus­pend the death penal­ty pend­ing res­o­lu­tion of the state’s bud­get cri­sis. Kentucky’s pub­lic defend­er sys­tem will exhaust its cur­rent bud­get by May 21 with two months remain­ing in the fis­cal year, forc­ing it to shut down.​“The bud­get short­fall cre­ates a like­li­hood that coun­sel will be unavail­able or unable to prop­er­ly pro­ceed, thereby…