Publications & Testimony

The leg­is­la­ture defeat­ed a 2007 bill that would have made the death penal­ty manda­to­ry for those who mur­der law enforce­ment offi­cers.Missouri became the 16^th state to ban the exe­cu­tion of inmates with men­tal retar­da­tion. The Missouri bill, signed by Gov. Bob Holden on July 2, but not effec­tive until August 28, is not retroac­tive to those cur­rent­ly on death row. However, the gov­er­nor indi­cat­ed he would con­sid­er com­mut­ing the death sen­tences of those who meet the law’s…

Minnesota Committee Votes Down Death Penalty Following two hours of tes­ti­mo­ny includ­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives of crime vic­tims and death row exonerees, the Minnesota Senate Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee vot­ed 8 – 2 against rein­stat­ing the death penal­ty, con­tin­u­ing near­ly a cen­tu­ry with­out the sen­tence on the state’s books. The Committee’s vote like­ly blocks pas­sage of the death penal­ty bill this year. Don Streufert, whose daugh­ter was raped and…

Michigan Lawmakers Reaffirm State’s Longstanding Ban on Capital Punishment In a vote uphold­ing the state’s long­stand­ing abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty, Michigan law­mak­ers refused to sup­port a mea­sure that would have put cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment before state vot­ers in a ref­er­en­dum. The vote fell 18 short of the 2/​3 required for pas­sage. During a lengthy House debate regard­ing the bill, Representative Jack Minor (D‑Flint) told his col­leagues that stud­ies show crime…

Massachusetts Again Votes Overwhelmingly Against Reinstating Death Penalty After over an hour of debate, the Massachusetts House of Representatives over­whelm­ing­ly reject­ed an attempt to rein­state the death penal­ty. Prior to the 110 – 46 vote, Governor Deval Patrick had vowed to veto the bill if it were approved. The bill was sim­i­lar to one sub­mit­ted by for­mer Governor Mitt Romney as a ​“gold stan­dard” for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. State Representatives cit­ed high costs and the…

NEW VOICES: Law Enforcement Officials Gather in Maryland to Oppose Death Penalty Corrections offi­cials, pros­e­cu­tors and police chiefs recent­ly gath­ered in Annapolis, Maryland, to voice sup­port for a leg­isla­tive mea­sure that would repeal the state’s death penal­ty. ​“It is a human sys­tem, and because it is fal­li­ble and because it is human, it makes mis­takes. Executions make those mis­takes irre­versible,” said Matthew Campbell, a for­mer deputy state’s attor­ney for Montgomery and…

Victims and Law Enforcement Support Kentucky Death Penalty Review Legislation to estab­lish a com­mis­sion to exam­ine Kentucky’s death penal­ty and report its find­ings to the General Assembly has gained sup­port from for­mer law enforce­ment offi­cials and vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers. The bill, pro­posed by Rep. Tom Burch, would require the task force to review whether cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment deters crime, is applied fair­ly, and is still accept­able to the pub­lic. It would mark the first time…

All Death Sentences Overturned in Kansas — The Kansas Supreme Court found that the state’s death penal­ty law is flawed and the sen­tences of the state’s four death row inmates will have to be decid­ed again. Kansas’s law allowed a death sen­tence if the aggra­vat­ing fac­tors pre­sent­ed by the pros­e­cu­tor were equal to the mit­i­gat­ing fac­tors pre­sent­ed by the defense. ​“Fundamental fair­ness” requires that a tie go to the defen­dant when it is a mat­ter of life and death, said the court.

Indiana Bars Execution of Juvenile Offenders - Indiana became the 16^th state to for­bid the death penal­ty for those who were under 18 years-of-age at the time of their crime. Gov. Frank O’Bannon signed SB 426 on March 26. The law also requires judges to fol­low juries’ unan­i­mous sen­tenc­ing rec­om­men­da­tions. (Associated Press, 3/​26/​02.) Federal death penal­ty law sim­i­lar­ly excludes juve­nile offend­ers. An addi­tion­al 5 states restrict the death penal­ty to those who are at least 17…

Wrongful Convictions Prompt More Jurisdictions to Videotape Interrogations The wrong­ful con­vic­tion of Eddie Joe Lloyd, a men­tal­ly ill man who was exon­er­at­ed in 2002 after serv­ing 17 years in prison for a rape and mur­der he did not com­mit, has prompt­ed Detroit to join a grow­ing list of juris­dic­tions that now require video­taped inter­ro­ga­tions of sus­pects. A decade ago, only Minnesota and Alaska required police to video­tape inter­ro­ga­tions, but today, at least 450 police…

Passed a bill in March 2003, exempt­ing the men­tal­ly retard­ed from the death penal­ty in which retar­da­tion, described as ​“sig­nif­i­cant­ly sub­av­er­age gen­er­al intel­lec­tu­al func­tion­ing,” will be deter­mined before the tri­al. For more infor­ma­tion regard­ing this leg­is­la­tion, Click Here. Idaho Governor Signs Bill to Allow for Jury Sentencing In February 2003, Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne signed to pro­vide for jury sen­tenc­ing in cap­i­tal cas­es. The new law, which shifts…