Publications & Testimony

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…

The Gallup Poll’s lat­est nation­al sur­vey of American opin­ion on the death penal­ty found that sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment dropped by 5 per­cent­age points from 2007, down to 64% sup­port from 69% last year. The pecen­t­age of those oppos­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment rose from 27% to 30%. This poll reflects that sup­port for the death penal­ty is equal to the low­est lev­el in the Gallup Polls dur­ing the past 30 years. Support had reached a high of…

A Florida inmate faces exe­cu­tion despite new rev­e­la­tions that the state prompt­ed a tri­al wit­ness to lie. Inmate Wayne Tompkins was to be exe­cut­ed in Florida on October 28, 2008, but was grant­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion to allow time for the state Supreme Court to review his case. On November 7, the court denied Tompkins’ appeal, even though the court acknowl­edged that a state wit­ness, a jail­house infor­mant, admit­ted to pro­vid­ing false tes­ti­mo­ny at Tompkins’…

Utah’s Supreme Court recent­ly expressed con­cern that the lack of qual­i­fied defense attor­neys for indi­gent death row inmates could unrav­el cap­i­tal sen­tences. In a unan­i­mous deci­sion in the case of death row inmate Michael Archuleta, Associate Chief Justice Michael Wilkins (pic­tured) said the court might be forced to reverse cap­i­tal sen­tences because the low pay and the com­plex­i­ty of such cas­es have shrunk the pool of Utah attorneys who…

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in The Virginian-Pilot points to the prob­lem of arbi­trari­ness in apply­ing the death penal­ty. The edi­to­r­i­al asks,​“Is it right to look at who the vic­tims were? Is it fair to con­sid­er the strength of the evi­dence and the time and resources required to pur­sue the death penal­ty, a cost­ly process? Does it make a crime less impor­tant, a vic­tim’s life less mem­o­rable, if pros­e­cu­tors decide that life in a tiny prison cell is pun­ish­ment enough for…

Professor Bruce Winick of the Miami School of Law has writ­ten an arti­cle argu­ing that the Supreme Court should extend the pro­tec­tion it present­ly offers to those with men­tal retar­da­tion and juve­niles to offend­ers with severe men­tal ill­ness, as well. In The Supreme Court’s Emerging Death Penalty Jurisprudence: Severe Mental Illness as the Next Frontier, Winick reviews the High Court’s analy­sis of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment under the Eighth Amendment with a focus on when…

The Death Penalty Information Center offers unique resources on its Web page Special from DPIC. Visitors will find use­ful fea­tures and research…

On November 3, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear a non-cap­i­­tal case from Alaska in which the defen­dant asserts that the con­sti­tu­tion requires the state to allow DNA test­ing on evi­dence from his tri­al so that he can prove his inno­cence. In District Attorney’s Office v Osborne (No 08 – 6), the Court will ini­tial­ly con­sid­er whether William Osborne may bring a civ­il rights claim (under 42 USC 1983) demon­strat­ing that the state has violated his…

Ohio’s Franklin County (Columbus) has been expe­ri­enc­ing a steady decline in death penal­ty indict­ments and death sen­tences as jurors are increas­ing­ly choos­ing sen­tences of life in prison with­out parole and pros­e­cu­tors are seek­ing few­er death sen­tences. In a recent cap­i­tal case, the judge had a dif­fi­cult time find­ing jurors who would like­ly fol­low state law and con­sid­er a death sen­tence. One prospec­tive juror, a 36-year-old truck dri­ver, explained that while he…

The num­ber of fed­er­al death sen­tences has increased in the past sev­en years, while the num­ber of state death sen­tences has declined. The size of the fed­er­al death row has tripled since 2000, while the num­ber of peo­ple on state death rows has dropped. There has also been a marked increase in the num­ber of peo­ple on the fed­er­al death row from states that do not have their own…