Publications & Testimony

On July 28, 2008, the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment held the first of sev­er­al pub­lic hear­ings to assess whether Maryland death penal­ty pro­ce­dures meet basic stan­dards of fair­ness and avoid bias and error. Established ear­li­er this year by Maryland’s General Assembly, the 23-mem­ber com­mis­sion is exam­in­ing issues includ­ing racial dis­par­i­ties in the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty, the costs of lit­i­gat­ing pro­longed cap­i­tal cas­es as com­pared to life impris­on­ment, and the risk of…

The same doc­tor who was banned from exe­cu­tions in Missouri has been dis­cov­ered as a par­tic­i­pant in Arizona’s most recent exe­cu­tion. Dr. Alan Doerhoff’s sig­na­ture was at the bot­tom of the EKG tape for Robert Comer, who was exe­cut­ed in 2007. Eight months ear­li­er, Dr. Doerhoff was pro­hib­it­ed from par­tic­i­pat­ing in fur­ther Missouri exe­cu­tions because of ques­tions about his stan­dards and com­pe­tence. Doerhoff had assist­ed in more than 54 exe­cu­tions in Missouri, devel­oped pro­ce­dures, inserted…

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recent­ly ruled that the state can force two death row inmates to take anti-psy­chot­ic med­ica­tion so they are men­tal­ly com­pe­tent enough to pro­ceed with their appeals and be exe­cut­ed. The two inmates were sen­tenced to death but were found incom­pe­tent to par­tic­i­pate in the appeals filed on their behalf. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent inmates may not be exe­cut­ed. The Pennsylvania court over­turned low­er court deci­sions and direct­ed them ​“to…

An op-ed by Texas state Senator Rodney Ellis and law pro­fes­sor Craig Jackson argues that Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons should fol­low the International Court of Justice’s order to stay the exe­cu­tions of Mexican cit­i­zens in Texas. They believe the World Court’s deci­sion was the ​“right thing to do” and Gov. Perry ​“would do well to con­sid­er how defi­ance of the World Court rul­ing will affect the safe­ty of Americans abroad who rely on the same treaty pro­tec­tions that Texas violated…

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recent­ly ruled that the state can force two death row inmates to take anti-psy­chot­ic med­ica­tion so they are men­tal­ly com­pe­tent enough to pro­ceed with their appeals and be exe­cut­ed. The two inmates were sen­tenced to death but were found incom­pe­tent to par­tic­i­pate in the appeals filed on their behalf. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent inmates may not be exe­cut­ed. The Pennsylvania court over­turned low­er court deci­sions and directed…

New research has called into ques­tion the reli­a­bil­i­ty of some use of DNA tests to defin­i­tive­ly iden­ti­fy sus­pects in crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions. After recent evi­dence of chro­mo­so­mal ​“match­es” based on DNA test­ing turned out to belong to unre­lat­ed indi­vid­u­als, some sci­en­tists won­der whether there are flaws in the assump­tions that under­lie the FBI’s sta­tis­ti­cal esti­mates of DNA accu­ra­cy. In 2001, Arizona state crime lab ana­lyst Kathryn Troyer was run­ning tests on the state’s database when…

The Justice Project has just released two pol­i­cy reviews relat­ed to DNA test­ing and the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. The first, ​“Improving Access to Post-Conviction DNA Testing,” chron­i­cles the lessons to be learned from the case of Kirk Bloodsworth. Bloodsworth was sen­tenced to death in Maryland and spent almost nine years in prison for the rape and mur­der of nine-year-old Dawn Hamilton before DNA test­ing proved he did not com­mit the crime. The report con­tains the Justice Project’s…

Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry grant­ed a 30-day stay of exe­cu­tion for Kevin Young who was sched­uled to die on July 22. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board rec­om­mend­ed clemen­cy for Young a week ear­li­er after hear­ing tape record­ed state­ments from jurors stat­ing that they hadn’t want­ed to give Young the death sen­tence but didn’t receive clar­i­fi­ca­tion when they asked whether he would be eli­gi­ble for parole if he was sen­tenced to life with­out parole. One juror explained, ​“We felt that the crime…

A new study pub­lished in the American Journal of Political Science inves­ti­gates the con­nec­tion between death penal­ty deci­sions and the prac­tice of elect­ing judges. ​“The analy­sis pre­sent­ed con­sid­ers pub­lic opinion’s influ­ence on the com­po­si­tion of courts … and its influ­ence on judge votes in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment cas­es. In elec­tive state supreme courts, pub­lic sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment influ­ences the ide­o­log­i­cal com­po­si­tion of those courts and judge will­ing­ness to uphold death…

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