Publications & Testimony

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California has released two reports on California’s death penal­ty deal­ing with the high costs and arbi­trari­ness of the sys­tem. The report on costs, ​“The Hidden Death Tax,” found that a cap­i­tal tri­al costs coun­ties at least $1.1 mil­lion more than a non-cap­i­­tal mur­der tri­al, and that the state spends an addi­tion­al $117 mil­lion a year pur­su­ing the exe­cu­tion of those already on death row. One tri­al alone cost…

Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia stayed the upcom­ing exe­cu­tion of Edward Bell, sched­uled for April 8, 2008. In so doing, the gov­er­nor issued a state­ment stay­ing oth­er exe­cu­tions and not­ing the U.S. Supreme Court’s con­sid­er­a­tion of the lethal injec­tion issue (Baze v. Rees). The state­ment also remarked on the dis­rup­tion that the set­ting of an execution…

“California’s Death…

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…

A UMNS CommentaryBy John C. Goodwin*March…

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…