Publications & Testimony

The Future of America’s Death Penalty, edit­ed by Charles S. Lanier, William J. Bowers, James R. Acker, is a new book com­prised of orig­i­nal chap­ters authored by nation­al­ly dis­tin­guished schol­ars. It is an ambi­tious effort to iden­ti­fy the most crit­i­cal issues con­fronting the future of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the United States and the steps that must be tak­en to gath­er and ana­lyze the infor­ma­tion that will be nec­es­sary for informed policy…

The Tennessee Law Review is host­ing a col­lo­qui­um enti­tled,​“The Past, Present, and Future of the Death Penalty.” The event will take place February 6 – 7 at the University of Tennessee College of Law in Knoxville and will fea­ture nation­al­ly known experts in this field, includ­ing David Baldus, Hugo Adam Bedau, Stephen Bright, Deborah Denno, Lyn Entzeroth, the Honorable Gilbert S. Merritt, and Penny White. Judge Merritt will deliv­er the keynote address on…

On January 16, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court grant­ed Ohio​’s peti­tion for a writ of cer­tio­rari in Bobby v. Bies. The state is ask­ing the Supreme Court to reverse a deci­sion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Court grant­i­ng the defen­dant, Michael Bies, habeas cor­pus relief based on a vio­la­tion of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Bies was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the 1992…

Texas death row inmate Jose Briseno was issued a stay of exe­cu­tion by a Texas judge so his pen-pal from England could fly to the state to meet him before he was exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion. Briseno’s attor­ney, Richard Burr, said the stay​“had to do with Jose’s extra­or­di­nary abil­i­ty to reach out to peo­ple all over the US and the world – as a pen-friend – to offer…

The Texas Tech Law Review​’s lat­est edi­tion is focused on inno­cence and the death penal­ty. Among the arti­cles includ­ed, are,​“Presumed Guilty: A Death Row Exoneree Shares His Story of Supreme Injustice and Reflections on the Death Penalty,” by Juan Roberto Melendez;​“Toward a New Paradigm of Criminal Justice: How the Innocence Movement Merges Crime Control and Due Process,” by Keith A. Findley;​“The Role of the Innocence Argument in Contemporary Death Penalty…

Judge Sheila Murphy (retired) of Cook County, Illinois, recent­ly tes­ti­fied before the Committee on Criminal Law of the Chicago Bar Association, not­ing her con­cerns about the costs of the death penal­ty.​“We’re in just ter­ri­ble eco­nom­ic times,” Judge Murphy said.​“The state of Illinois is in deep trou­ble, and we should not be squan­der­ing mon­ey on the death penal­ty when there’s such great need – not just with vic­tims but with the…

The prison news mag­a­zine The Angolite fea­tures an in-depth piece on the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment around the world in its recent iss­sue. Citing a 2008 Amnesty International report, the arti­cle notes that China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, and the United States lead the world in exe­cu­tions. Japan, the only oth­er indus­tri­al­ized democ­ra­cy besides the U.S. that uses cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, aver­ages five exe­cu­tions a year but is known for inhu­mane death row…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit over­turned a Texas defen­dan­t’s con­vic­tion and death sen­tence because of racial bias by the pros­e­cu­tion in jury selec­tion. Jonathan Reed, the defen­dant, had been con­vict­ed in 1979 of mur­der dur­ing a tri­al at which all five of the eli­gi­ble African-American poten­tial jurors were removed by the pros­e­cu­tion. The Fifth Circuit, which has upheld many death sen­tences from the state with the most…

The News & Record of North Carolina recent­ly fea­tured an edi­to­r­i­al encour­ag­ing the state’s leg­is­la­ture and gov­er­nor to abol­ish the death penal­ty. The edi­to­r­i­al not­ed the con­tro­ver­sies that have sur­round­ed the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state, includ­ing dis­agree­ment about lethal injec­tions and the incon­sis­tent way the penal­ty has been applied. The declin­ing num­ber of death sen­tences and the exten­sive time need­ed before an execution…

The Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office in Louisiana may file for bank­rupt­cy because of a mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar law-suit award stem­ming from the office’s mis­con­duct in a death penal­ty case. John Thompson, a for­mer death row inmate, was award­ed $14 mil­lion after he was exon­er­at­ed due to the with­hold­ing of evi­dence by the for­mer District Attorney. Thompson spent 18 years in prison, includ­ing 14 years on death row in…