Publications & Testimony

In May 2008, the California Supreme Court threw out the death sen­tence of con­vict­ed mur­der­er Adam Miranda and ordered a new sen­tenc­ing tri­al, rul­ing that Los Angeles County pros­e­cu­tors failed to dis­close key infor­ma­tion that like­ly affect­ed the sen­tenc­ing of Miranda. A Los Angeles Times edi­to­r­i­al high­lights the arbi­trari­ness of this case, not­ing that many defen­dants with­out ded­i­cat­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tion might not have fared so well. This edi­to­r­i­al asks about…

In 1982, as a sec­ond term Assemblyman, Raymond Lesniak vot­ed to rein­state the death penal­ty in New Jersey. In December 2007, New Jersey vot­ed to abol­ish the death penal­ty, becom­ing the first state in 40 years to accom­plish this. Senator Lesniak was one of the spon­sors and leg­isla­tive lead­ers of the abo­li­tion bill. He has writ­ten a new book:​“The Road to Abolition: How New Jersey Abolished the Death Penatly.” In com­ment­ing on the book, Senator Lesniak said,​“Why do I care…

Recent exon­er­a­tions from death row, such as the release of Levon Jones in North Carolina on May 3, have been linked to the poor qual­i­ty of rep­re­sen­ta­tion some of these inmates received. This rais­es par­tic­u­lar con­cern as the nation resumed exe­cu­tions on May 6. William Lynd of Georgia was the first per­son exe­cut­ed since Sept. 25, 2007. But Georgia’s new pub­lic defend­er sys­tem has had its bud­get cut back and has been forced to elim­i­nate more than 40 positions.

Georgia is plan­ning to excute William Earl Lynd at 7 PM on May 6. If the lethal injec­tion goes for­ward, this would be first exe­cu­tion in the U.S. since September 25, 2007. On that day, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a chal­lenge to the lethal injec­tion process in Baze v. Rees. On April 16, 2008, the Court upheld the process of lethal injec­tion as prac­ticed in Kentucky, sig­nalling a prob­a­ble end to the 7‑month mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. However, the possible resumption…

Eighteen peo­ple have been exon­er­at­ed of seri­ous vio­lent crimes from a sin­gle Texas coun­ty through DNA-test­ing in recent years. James Woodward was the lat­est per­son to be freed from con­fine­ment from Dallas County. He spent 27 years in prison for the wrong­ful con­vic­tion of rap­ing and mur­der­ing his girl­friend in 1981. Statewide in Texas there have been 30 such exon­er­a­tions. As a par­tial response, state Senator Rodney Ellis has called for a summit on…

May…

The state of North Carolina dropped all charges against Levon Jones, and he was freed today (May 2) after spend­ing 13 years on death row. U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle over­turned Jones’s con­vic­tion two years ago, but he was held in prison await­ing a pos­si­ble retri­al until pros­e­cu­tors announced that they were dis­miss­ing all charges. Judge Boyle crit­i­cized Jones’s defense attor­neys for​“con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly defi­cient” per­for­mance, noting their…

According to a recent study by Prof. David Sloss of the St. Louis University School of Law, and oth­ers, only a small per­cent­age of eli­gi­ble mur­der cas­es in Missouri are pros­e­cut­ed as death penal­ty cas­es, and even few­er result in a death sen­tence. Only 2.5 per­cent of defen­dants pros­e­cut­ed for inten­tion­al homi­cide are sen­tenced to death. In anoth­er 2.5 per­cent of cas­es, juries reject the death penal­ty. Ninety-five per­cent of inten­tion­al homi­cide cases are…

The state of New Mexico agreed to drop its pur­suit of the death penal­ty against two defen­dants because the state leg­is­la­ture did not pro­vide the mon­ey nec­es­sary for ade­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the defen­dants, who were accused of killing a prison guard. The tri­al of Reis Lopez and Robert Young will pro­ceed as a non-cap­i­­tal mur­der pros­e­cu­tion. The pros­e­cu­tion’s deci­sion was spurred by the tri­al court’s rul­ing bar­ring the seek­ing of the death penalty…

By Kiko Martinez San Antonio Current April…