Publications & Testimony

On March 24, Maryland law­mak­ers vot­ed to cre­ate a com­mis­sion to study the state’s death penal­ty. The House vot­ed 89 – 48 and the Senate by 32 – 15 to estab­lish the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment to research racial, socio-eco­nom­i­­cal, and geo­graph­ic dis­par­i­ties in the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty as well as eval­u­ate the risk of exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son. The com­mis­sion will con­sid­er the costs of the death penal­ty as com­pared to a sentence of…

A recent Arizona Legal Studies paper on mur­der cas­es in Missouri found both geo­graph­i­cal and racial dis­par­i­ties in the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty.​“Life and Death Decisions: Prosecutorial Discretion and Capital Punishment in Missouri,” by Katherine Barnes of Arizona University Law School, and David Sloss and Stephen Thaman of St. Louis Univeristy Law School, stud­ied 1046 cas­es of inten­tion­al homi­cide in Missouri to deter­mine geo­graph­i­cal and racial effects in the…

On March 25, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6 – 3 in Medellin v. Texas (No. 06 – 984) that the President does not have the author­i­ty to order states to bypass their pro­ce­dur­al rules and com­ply with a rul­ing from the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The case arose from an appeal by Jose Medellin, a Mexican cit­i­zen on Texas’ death row who, along with 50 oth­er Mexican death row inmates, filed suit in the ICJ alleg­ing a vio­la­tion of their rights under the Vienna Convention…

On March 20, the Georgia State Senate over­whelm­ing­ly (44 – 7) reject­ed a pro­pos­al that would have allowed non-unan­i­­mous jury sen­tenc­ing ver­dicts in cap­i­tal cas­es. The pro­pos­al would have per­mit­ted a judge to impose a death sen­tence when at least 10 of 12 jurors sup­port­ed it. Current Georgia law requires that the jury vote unan­i­mous­ly for a death sen­tence. Some oppo­nents of the bill said it would have put Georgia’s entire death penal­ty law in jeop­ardy. (All other…

On March 25, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6 – 3 in Medellin v. Texas (No. 06 – 984) that the President does not have the author­i­ty to order states to bypass their pro­ce­dur­al rules and com­ply with a rul­ing from the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Even apart from the President’s pow­ers, the Court held that Texas is not oblig­at­ed to give Mr. Medellin an addi­tion­al hear­ing because the Protocol gov­ern­ing the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations is not…

Thomas Miller-El received a life sen­tence from a Texas judge after plead­ing guilty to a Dallas mur­der in exchange for the pros­e­cu­tion’s agree­ment not to seek the death penal­ty. Miller-El had orig­i­nal­ly been sen­tenced to death in 1986. He raised an appeal assert­ing that poten­tial black jurors had been improp­er­ly stopped from serv­ing at his tri­al. The appeal was denied by the low­er courts, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (8 – 1) in 2003 that he should have been…

A recent Harris Interactive poll of over 1,000 American adults found that the num­ber of peo­ple who oppose the death penal­ty has increased since 2003. Thirty-per­­cent (30%) of those sam­pled oppose the death penal­ty, an increase of 8 per­cent­age points in the past 5 years. The per­cent­age of respon­dents who​“believe in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment” has dropped sig­nif­i­cant­ly since 1997, when 75% sup­port­ed the death penal­ty. In 2008, that num­ber had declined to 63%, the lowest…

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7 – 2 on March 19 that the con­vic­tion and death sen­tence of Allen Snyder should be over­turned because the tri­al judge allowed a poten­tial juror to be reject­ed on what appeared to be racial grounds. The deci­sion, writ­ten by Justice Samuel Alito, focused on the elim­i­na­tion of an African-American man from jury pan­el. The Court reject­ed the pros­e­cu­tion’s non-racial rea­sons for strik­ing this juror:​“The implau­si­bil­i­ty of this explanation is…

U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that he hopes that the Guantanamo pris­on­ers accused of ter­ror­ism do not receive the death penal­ty in the upcom­ing Military Commission tri­als because it would give them the mar­tyr­dom that they want. In a recent talk to British eco­nom­ic stu­dents, Mukasey said he sup­ports the death penal­ty, but,​“In a way I kind of hope from a per­son­al stand­point … I kind of hope they don’t get it. Because many of them want to be martyrs .…”…

On March 17, the Georgia Supreme Court vot­ed 4 – 3 against Troy Davis’ request for a new tri­al. Davis, who is on death row for the 1989 mur­der of a police offi­cer, claims he is inno­cent and that he was a vic­tim of mis­tak­en iden­ti­ty. Since his tri­al in 1991, sev­en of the wit­ness­es called by the pros­e­cu­tion have recant­ed their tes­ti­mo­ny. Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears wrote in the dis­sent­ing opin­ion that Davis should at least have a hear­ing because,​“In this case,…