Publications & Testimony

Jim Trainum, a police offi­cer of over 25 years, recent­ly dis­cussed how shocked he was to dis­cov­er how he and oth­er offi­cers were able to obtain a con­fes­sion to mur­der from an inno­cent woman. Trainum explained, ​“Reviewing the tapes years lat­er, I saw that we had fall­en into a clas­sic trap. We ignored evi­dence that our sus­pect might not have been guilty, and dur­ing the inter­ro­ga­tion we inad­ver­tent­ly fed her details of the crime that she repeat­ed back to us in her…

Two dozen exon­er­at­ed ex-death row pris­on­ers from across the coun­try will hold a news con­fer­ence on October 31 in Austin to call for the estab­lish­ment of a statewide com­mis­sion on wrong­ful con­vic­tions and a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in Texas. The 24 men spent a com­bined total of near­ly 200 years on death row before being freed. They will be joined by State Rep. Elliot Naishtat and for­mer Bexar County District Attorney Sam Millsap…

Civil rights lit­i­ga­tor and death penal­ty expert Ronald J. Tabak recent­ly pub­lished ​“The Private Bar’s Efforts to Secure Proper Representation for those Facing Execution” in the Justice System Journal. The arti­cle presents an in-depth review of the American Bar Association​’s (ABA) role in ensur­ing effec­tive coun­sel in cap­i­tal cas­es. Tabak recounts the ABA’s efforts since the mid-1980’s to secure com­pe­tent rep­re­sen­ta­tion at every state of legal pro­ceed­ings, stating that…

The US Court of Appeals for the 11^th Circuit issued a stay for Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis on October 24. The fed­er­al appeals court’s three-judge pan­el ordered both sides to draft briefs to address wheter Davis can be exe­cut­ed if he can demon­strate his like­ly inno­cence. Davis’ case has gar­nered both inter­na­tion­al and nation­al atten­tion. Former President Jimmy Carter and the European Union were among those call­ing for a stay of exe­cu­tion. Davis was sched­uled to be executed on…

Elon University School of Law’s Professor Victor Streib has released a new edi­tion of his book, Streib’s Death Penalty in a Nutshell. It cov­ers both the sub­stan­tive and the pro­ce­dur­al law of the death penal­ty and begins with argu­ments for and against the death penal­ty and an expla­na­tion of its basic con­sti­tu­tion­al chal­lenges and lim­i­ta­tions. Professor Streib cov­ers cap­i­tal crimes and defens­es, as well as tri­al lev­el and post tri­al pro­ce­dur­al issues. Other top­ics include race and gender…

The Tennessean called for a more just legal sys­tem as a state leg­isla­tive study com­mit­tee on the death penal­ty con­tin­ues to meet. The com­mit­tee began its work this year after a series of embar­rass­ing mis­takes in apply­ing the death penal­ty in Tennessee. Executions cur­rent­ly are on hold due to a lethal injec­tion chal­lenge brought last year by a death row inmate. The edi­to­r­i­al called the com­mit­tee’s work a ​“sliv­er of hope for improve­ment” after ​“cost­ly confusion and…

Select pages of DPIC’s Web site are now avail­able in Spanish, German and French. DPIC’s Death Penalty Fact Sheet and oth­er infor­ma­tion are in Spanish. DPIC’s Innocence List Case Descriptions are avail­abile in German. DPIC’s 1998 Report The Death Penalty in Black & White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides is avail­able in…