Publications & Testimony

A new book, Against the Death Penalty: International Initiatives and Implications, fea­tures lead­ing schol­ars on the death penal­ty and their analy­sis of both the pro­mo­tion and demise of the pun­ish­ment around the world. It con­sid­ers the cur­rent efforts to restrict the death penal­ty with­in the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the African Commission, and the Commonwealth Caribbean. It also inves­ti­gates per­spec­tives and ques­tions for reten­tion­ist coun­tries with a focus on the United States,…

A new study pub­lished in the Houston Law Review, ​“Racial Disparities in the Capital of Capital Punishment,” explores the rela­tion­ship of race to death sen­tenc­ing in Harris County (Houston), Texas. In the study, Prof. Scott Phillips of the University of Denver explores pat­terns involv­ing the race of both vic­tims and defen­dants, while con­trol­ling for oth­er vari­ables. Phillips con­cludes death sen­tences were more like­ly to be imposed in cas­es with white vic­tims than in those with black victims,…

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…