Publications & Testimony

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…

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.