Publications & Testimony

The Justice Project recent­ly released two pol­i­cy reviews that pro­vide sug­ges­tions for pre­vent­ing wrong­ful con­vic­tions in crim­i­nal tri­als. Using research and data from past exon­er­a­tions, the new reports, Expanded Discovery in Criminal Cases and Jailhouse Snitch Testimony, point to the places and sit­u­a­tions in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem where a wrong­ful con­vic­tion can be eas­i­ly pre­vent­ed. Expanded Discovery in Criminal Cases stress­es the importance of…

The Death Penalty Project, an inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tion that pro­vides free legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion for indi­vid­u­als fac­ing the death penal­ty in the Caribbean and Africa, recent­ly pub­lished A Guide to Sentencing in Capital Cases. The guide pro­vides judges, pros­e­cu­tors, and defense attor­neys with infor­ma­tion and sam­ple appeals to help them nav­i­gate the sen­tenc­ing phase in cas­es where a manda­to­ry death sen­tence for a spe­cif­ic crime was abol­ished, leaving the…

by Michal LandoDecember 13, 2007Jerusalem…

Prosecutors in North Carolina on December 11 dropped all charges against Jonathon Hoffman, who had been con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the 1995 mur­der of a jew­el­ry store own­er. Hoffman won a new tri­al in 2004 because infor­ma­tion favor­able to Hoffman was with­held from the defense. During Hoffman’s first tri­al, the state’s key wit­ness, Johnell Porter, had received immu­ni­ty from fed­er­al charges for tes­ti­fy­ing against his cousin. The defense attorneys,…

Gov. Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Jeffrey D. Leonard for the 1983 mur­der of a Louisville store clerk before leav­ing office. Governor Fletcher reduced Leonard’s death sen­tence to life with­out parole. He had been con­vict­ed under the name of James Earl Slaughter. The Governor not­ed in his com­mu­ta­tion that Leonard was not pro­vid­ed with ade­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion and that Leonard’s attor­ney did not even know his clien­t’s real name…

New Jersey Abolishes the Death PenaltyOn December 17, 2007, Governor Jon Corzine signed a bill that abol­ish­es the death penal­ty in New Jersey and replaces it with a sen­tence of life with­out parole. On Sunday, December 16^th, Corzine com­mut­ed the sen­tences of the eight men on death row to life with­out the parole sen­tences. (“NJ Bans Death Penalty” Associated Press, December 17, 2007). The New Jersey Assembly approved this bill to replace the state’s death penal­ty with a sentence of…

After hours of debate and tes­ti­mo­ny, the New Jersey Senate today approved bill S‑171 which will replace the state’s death penal­ty with a sen­tence of life with­out parole. The mea­sure was approved by a vote of 21 – 16 and now moves to the State Assembly, where approval is also expect­ed in a vote on Thursday. The gov­er­nor has indi­cat­ed he will sign the bill into law, mak­ing New Jersey the first state to leg­isla­tive­ly abol­ish the death penal­ty in over 40 years. Around the…

Today, December 10, 2007, the New Jersey Senate will vote on a bill (Senate Bill 171) to replace the death penal­ty with the sen­tence of life with­out parole. Earlier, the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission held exten­sive pub­lic hear­ings that cul­mi­nat­ed in a report call­ing for an end to the death penal­ty. The Commission con­sist­ed of a wide range of per­spec­tives, includ­ing law enforce­ment, vic­tims, and attor­neys. Some of the key find­ings of the…

On December 5, a Tennessee jury acquit­ted Michael Lee McCormick of the 1985 mur­der of Donna Jean Nichols, a crime for which McCormick spent 16 years on death row. In his first tri­al, the pros­e­cu­tion intro­duced hair evi­dence from Nichols’ car that the FBI said matched McCormick. DNA test­ing lat­er found that the hair did not match McCormick and this evi­dence was not per­mit­ted in the new tri­al. McCormick’s attor­ney, Karla Gothard said after the tri­al,​“We have been living with…

In a recent edi­to­r­i­al enti­tled​“The Myth of Deterrence,” the Dallas Morning News point­ed to the many rea­sons why the death penal­ty does not deter mur­ders: a major­i­ty of mur­ders can be clas­si­fied as irra­tional acts, and the per­pe­tra­tors are unlike­ly to have con­sid­ered the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a death sen­tences before and dur­ing the crime; those who com­mit pre­med­i­tat­ed mur­der are also unlike­ly to con­sid­er the pos­si­bil­i­ty of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment because it is…