Publications & Testimony

On March 28, two let­ters were sent to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice–one from mem­bers of the law enforce­ment com­mu­ni­ty and the oth­er from judges, rais­ing con­cerns about the state’s death penal­ty. Thirty law enforce­ment offi­cers, includ­ing cur­rent and for­mer pros­e­cu­tors, police chiefs and oth­er offi­cers, signed a let­ter stat­ing that ​“California’s death penal­ty is bro­ken.” The let­ter cites mul­ti­ple rea­sons why the state’s death…

A UMNS CommentaryBy John C. Goodwin*March 28,…

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 life with­out parole. Its findings and…

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 rates at which…

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 Consular…

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 death penal­ty states that allow…

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 num­ber in recent years. …