Publications & Testimony

The U.S. Supreme Court denied cer­tio­rari in the Troy Davis case on October 14, despite his claim of inno­cence. Davis had peti­tioned the Court to inter­vene in his case after sev­en of the nine non-police wit­ness­es against him recant­ed their tes­ti­mo­ny. His lawyers said the new evi­dence demon­strat­ed his inno­cence and that anoth­er man had even con­fessed to the killing. The Georgia Board of Pardon and Paroles could still review its ear­li­er deci­sion to deny clemency to…

In June 2008, the Office of Defender Services of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts pub­lished a report ana­lyz­ing the cost, qual­i­ty and avail­abil­i­ty of defense rep­re­sen­ta­tion in fed­er­al death penal­ty cas­es. The report deter­mined that fed­er­al cap­i­tal tri­als in which the death penal­ty was sought were sub­stan­tial­ly more expen­sive than non-death penal­ty fed­er­al tri­als; how­ev­er, a death sen­tence was hand­ed down in only one-quar­ter of the cas­es. In addi­tion, defense…

As many coun­tries pre­pare to mark the inter­na­tion­al World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10, recent trends indi­cate that the world is shift­ing away from cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. According to a report pub­lished by Reprieve, an orga­ni­za­tion that rep­re­sents death row pris­on­ers around the world, 91 coun­tries had abol­ished the death penal­ty for all crimes by the end of 2007, fol­lowed by three more so far in 2008. Even in Central Asia where exe­cu­tions are part of a long…

In her new book, Execution’s Doorstep: The True Stories of the Innocent and Near Damned, author Leslie Lytle pro­vides a com­pelling nar­ra­tive recount­ing the har­row­ing jour­neys of five inno­cent men who spent many years on death row. Through exten­sive research and inter­views, Lytle has suc­ceed­ed in reveal­ing the deep pain and suf­fer­ing that such injus­tice yields, putting a human face to the recur­ring prob­lem of inno­cence on death row. The book explores all aspects of the cas­es, from the…

There have been 24 exe­cu­tions so far in 2008. Executions resumed on May 5 after the U.S. Supreme Court approved Kentucky’s lethal injec­tion process in Baze v. Rees. One hun­dred per­cent of the exe­cu­tions have been in the South, includ­ing 9 in Texas, 4 in Virginia, and 3 in Georgia. At least 12 cas­es have been grant­ed stays of exe­cu­tions in the past two months, includ­ing Troy Davis, whose exe­cu­tion in Georgia was halt­ed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The for­mer war­den of San Quentin prison in California, Jeanne Woodford, regrets hav­ing tak­en part in exe­cu­tions and has called for replac­ing the death penal­ty with life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Woodford notes that after each exe­cu­tion, ​“some­one on the staff would ask, ​‘Is the world safer because of what we did tonight?’ We knew the answer: No.” The full arti­cle can be found…