Publications & Testimony

In North Carolina, Kristin Parks of Disability Rights N.C. and John Tote of the Mental Health Association‑N.C. pointed to the case of Abdullah El-Amin Shareef as illustrating the need for a law exempting the mentall ill from the death penalty. A jury recently sentenced Shareef to life in prison without parole in a case where prosecutors had sought the death penalty. In April 2004, Shareef committed a senseless crime that killed one man and injured three others, primarily because his paranoid…

Kathleen Garcia, a victims’ advocate and expert on traumatic grief, recently shared her opinions on the death penalty in New Hampshire, a state that is studying the issue through its Commission on Capital Punishment. Garcia, a member of New Jersey’s Death Penalty Study Commission, wrote, “Make no mistake – I am a conservative, a victims’ advocate and a death penalty supporter. But my real life experience has taught me that as long as the death penalty is on the books in any form, it will…

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled on March 25 that the capital prosecution of Jamie Ryan Weis could proceed despite the defendant’s claims that a lack of state funding for capital defense has deprived him of effective representation and a speedy trial. Weis, who was arrested 4 years ago, was first appointed two defense lawyers with death penalty experience but the agency that funds defense lawyers in capital cases could not pay them. They were replaced by salaried public defenders who…

Texas is moving closer to carrying out the execution of Henry Skinner on March 24, despite the fact that critical evidence from the crime scene, which could point to a different suspect, has not been subjected to DNA testing . Many of the major state newspapers in Texas have editorialized for a delay to the execution to allow for the DNA testing. On March 22, the Texas Board of Parole and Pardons refused to recommend clemency for Skinner. Attorneys at the Capital Punishment Center at the…

Gregory Taylor recently became the first person exonerated by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, the only state-run agency in the country with the power to overturn convictions based on claims of innocence. Taylor had been convicted of the brutal murder of a prostitute, a crime for which he might have been executed in many states. In 1993, prosecutors relied partly on a lab report indicating that blood was found in Taylor’s SUV, which was found parked near the victim’s body. The…

A recent editorial in the Spokane (WA) Spokesman-Review called for elimination of the death penalty in light of its high costs and the state’s tight budget. Executions are uncertain and delayed by the necessity of appeals to ensure the constitutionality of the trial. The editorial cited a study by the Washington Bar Association that identified over $600,000 in additional costs for a capital case: “death penalty cases are estimated to generate roughly $470,000 in additional costs to the…

A recent article in the Akron Law Review asks whether the Federal Death Penalty Act (FDPA) is in compliance with the Sixth Amendment’s right to confront witnesses because it allows hearsay evidence in determining whether a defendant is eligible for the death penalty. During a typical criminal trial, the accused has the right to challenge and cross examine the testimony of state witnesses who must appear in person. But in a death penalty case, the FDPA allows statements of witnesses not present…