Publications & Testimony

The state of Washington has car­ried out 4 exe­cu­tions in 45 years, the last one being in 2001 when James Elledge waived his appeals and was exe­cut­ed. Some pros­e­cu­tors, leg­is­la­tors, and defense attor­neys are ques­tion­ing the val­ue of keep­ing the sys­tem. Kitsap County Prosecutor Russell Hauge (pic­tured) sup­ports the death penal­ty but has decid­ed against seek­ing it in a recent case because he felt the appeals process would sim­ply nev­er end. ​“In terms of jus­tice, the worst thing that could…

States with the death penal­ty have con­sis­tent­ly had high­er mur­der rates than states with­out the death penal­ty. If the death penal­ty was act­ing as a deter­rent to mur­der, one might expect that the gap between these two groups would lessen over a long peri­od of time as states using the death penal­ty obtained an advan­tage in reduc­ing mur­ders. However, the gap has grown larg­er over the past 18 years. In 2007, states with the death penal­ty had a 42% high­er mur­der rate than states with­out the death…

Professsors Saundra Westervelt and Kimberly Cook of the University of North Carolina recent­ly pub­lished a study enti­tled ​“Coping with Innocence After Death Row.” The study appeared in ​“Contexts” pub­lished by the American Sociological Association. The authors stud­ied the lives of 18 inno­cent men and women exon­er­at­ed from death row. The unique research uncov­ers the dif­fi­cul­ty the exonerees have had in adapt­ing to life out­side of prison with­out the process of ​“dela­bel­ing,” or recognition…

Statements from Doctors and Medical Organizations American Medical Association and EMT Association Say Participation in Executions Violates Medical EthicsAnesthesiologists Advised to Avoid Lethal InjectionsAmerican Board of Anesthesiology Forbidding Participation by Members in Executions (April 2, 2010)American Nurses Association Position Statement on Capital…

Attorneys for Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to argue before a three-judge pan­el of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11^th Circuit on December 9 in Atlanta. The Court will hear argu­ments on whether Davis can file a sec­ond fed­er­al chal­lenge to his con­vic­tion based on new evi­dence of his inno­cence. The Court stayed Davis’ exe­cu­tion short­ly before he was to receive a lethal injec­tion so that it could review the con­sti­tu­tion­al issues in his…

The North Carolina Supreme Court heard argu­ments on November 18 on whether the state’s Medical Board can sanc­tion doc­tors who par­tic­i­pate in an exe­cu­tion. The Board for­bids physi­cian par­tic­i­pa­tion in exe­cu­ti­ions as a vio­la­tion of the med­ical code of ethics. At the same time, North Carolina’s death penal­ty statute requires a physician’s pres­ence at all executions.A Wake County judge ruled last year that the Medical Board had over­stepped its author­i­ty and the state law took prece­dence, a…

On November 10 in Richmond, Virginia, thir­ty for­mer FBI agents held a press con­fer­ence call­ing for the par­don of four sailors, known as the Norfolk Four, who were con­vict­ed of rape and mur­der. Their con­vic­tions were based main­ly on their own con­fes­sions, which were appar­ent­ly made out of fear that they might oth­er­wise receive the death penal­ty. The FBI agents point­ed out that DNA and foren­sic evi­dence now points to a prison inmate who has con­fessed as the sole per­pe­tra­tor of the crimes. They…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in The Journal Star (Lincoln, Nebraska) expressed the paper’s shock at how the death penal­ty dis­tort­ed a state crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion to the extent that six inno­cent peo­ple were con­vict­ed of a mur­der they did not com­mit. Defendants were pres­sured to offer erro­neous tes­ti­mo­ny through the threat of fac­ing the death penal­ty. ​“The wrong­ful con­vic­tions show how the death penal­ty can dis­tort the search for jus­tice,” the edi­to­r­i­al stat­ed. ​“Investigators supplied…