Publications & Testimony

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…

…

Researchers Marvin Zalman, Brad Smith, and Angie Kiger of Wayne State University’s Criminal Justice Department recent­ly pub­lished a study in the Justice Quarterly on the fre­quen­cy of wrong­ful con­vic­tions. After a com­pre­hen­sive review of the lit­er­a­ture con­cern­ing inno­cence, they report­ed the results of their sur­vey of Michigan police offi­cers, pros­e­cu­tors, defense lawyers and judges regard­ing their ​“esti­mates of the fre­quen­cy of wrong­ful con­vic­tion.” Respondents were asked about the…

The lat­est ver­sion of Death Row U.S.A. has been released by the Capital Punishment Project of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. The report con­tains death row and exe­cu­tion data for all states and fed­er­al juris­dic­tions as of January 1, 2008. The report lists inmates by state, name, and race. The report also con­tains infor­ma­tion on each per­son exe­cut­ed since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1976, and infor­ma­tion on U.S. Supreme Court deci­sions. The last ver­sion of DRUSA was…

On July 10, Carlton Akee Turner is sched­uled to be put to death in Texas for the mur­der of his adop­tive par­ents when he was 19 years old. But a major­i­ty of the vic­tims’ rel­a­tives are speak­ing out against the exe­cu­tion. Victim Tonya Carlton’s broth­er, Kelly Johnson, wrote in a peti­tion to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, ​“I do not wish to see my sister’s only child exe­cut­ed. I believe in my heart that my sis­ter would only have want­ed Akee to receive the help that he need­ed to restore his mind…

A for­mer California deputy dis­trict attor­ney recent­ly explained how he had changed his views on the death penal­ty after once argu­ing for it at tri­al. From that expe­ri­ence, he con­clud­ed he ​“won’t do it again.” As the pros­e­cu­tor in a heinous mur­der case, Darryl Stallworth found him­self feel­ing more hes­i­tant about the use of the death penal­ty as the tri­al pro­gressed. Stallworth stat­ed, ​“I was no longer cer­tain what would be accom­plished by exe­cut­ing [the defen­dant].” Although he argued for the…

Testimony of Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center, before the Nevada Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice regard­ing the costs of the death penal­ty and relat­ed issues (July 7, 2008; telephonic…