Publications & Testimony

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…

by Dr. Andrew D. MoranLondon Metropolitan UniversityAmerican Politics Group Annual ConferenceSt. Anne’s College, University of OxfordE‑mail:…

The legal fight over California’s lethal injec­tion process moved into a new phase as the state has giv­en up its appeals and decid­ed to fol­low the admin­is­tra­tive rules to put the exe­cu­tion plan through pub­lic review. The state must hold a series of pub­lic hear­ings, which effec­tive­ly leaves San Quentin’s new­ly con­struct­ed exe­cu­tion cham­ber emp­ty for the fore­see­able future. This is the lat­est devel­op­ment in California’s attempt to revise its lethal…

Oregon Supreme Court Justice Martha Walters recent­ly sug­gest­ed that it is time to review the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the death penal­ty. Concurring in Oregon v. Michael Davis, Justice Walters wrote,​“When pre­sent­ed with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to do so, I urge this court to con­sid­er our state’s expe­ri­ence in impos­ing the death penal­ty and to exam­ine its con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty anew.“ Justice Walters acknowl­edged that the death penalty…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in the Washington Post cit­ed trends and sta­tis­tics from DPIC’s 2008 Year End Report in call­ing for an end to the death penal­ty in Maryland. The paper urged Maryland law­mak­ers to​“heed the march of his­to­ry” and not­ed that use of the death penal­ty is declin­ing around the coun­try:​“According to the Death Penalty Information Center, a non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion that stud­ies cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, exe­cu­tions nationwide reached…

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The num­ber of police offi­cers killed by gun­fire in 2008 dropped by 40% from 2007, down to its low­est lev­el in more than 50 years, accord­ing to a report by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. The report attrib­uted the decline to a new empha­sis on offi­cer safe­ty train­ing and equip­ment. In addi­tion to increased train­ing, more offi­cers are wear­ing body armor and using stun guns to pro­tect them­selves. The over­all number of…

The Death Penalty Information Center’s Year End Report for 2008 record­ed 37 exe­cu­tions for the year that ends today. That is a 12% drop from the 42 exe­cu­tions in 2007. However, based on exe­cu­tions already sched­uled for 2009, the com­ing year may see an increase. There are 23 exe­cu­tions sched­uled for the first five months of 2009, and more dates are like­ly to be added. As was true in 2008, almost all the exe­cu­tions sched­uled are in the south and about half (12…