Publications & Testimony

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 report…

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 this case for…

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 so unlike­ly to be car­ried out. ​“No rational…

By an 8 – 4 vote on Dec. 3, the New Jersey Senate Budget Committee vot­ed to advance a bill to replace the death penal­ty with a sen­tence of life in prison with­out parole. The bill would make New Jersey the first state to leg­isla­tive­ly abol­ish the death penal­ty since the U.S. Supreme Court rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty in 1976. Senator Raymond Lesniak, the bil­l’s spon­sor, cit­ed a recent case of wrong­ful con­vic­tion in New Jersey when explain­ing his sup­port for abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty. He…

New Hampshire, Wyoming House Pass Bills to Ban Juvenile Death Penalty Less than a month after the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will recon­sid­er the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the death penal­ty for juve­nile offend­ers, two state leg­isla­tive bod­ies have passed mea­sures to ban the prac­tice. The New Hampshire Senate passed its bill to ban the exe­cu­tion of those who were under the age of 18 at the time of their offense on February 19, 2004. The mea­sure now moves to the House,…

B. Orser, ​“Lifting the Fog Around Anesthesia,” Scientific American, June 2007Thomas, Evan and Brant, Martha ​“Injection of Reflection,” Newsweek, November 10, 2007Weinstein, Harry and Dolan, Maura ​“The Chaos Behind California Executions” Los Angeles Times (October 2, 2006)Guidry, Orin ​“Message From the President: Observations Regarding Lethal Injection” American Society of Anesthesiologists (June 30,…

DNA Exonerations Lead to Key Policy Changes Throughout the U.S. In the wake of more than 200 exon­er­a­tions based on DNA evi­dence, includ­ing some wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed death row pris­on­ers, juris­dic­tions through­out the U.S. are enact­ing key pol­i­cy reforms that add safe­guards to pro­tect against wrong­ful con­vic­tions and pro­vide inmates with bet­ter access to cru­cial evi­dence dur­ing appeals. All but eight states now give inmates vary­ing degrees of access to DNA evi­dence that might…

Author of Wisconsin Death Penalty Referendum Says Law Has No Chance of Passing Sen. Al Lasee (R‑DePere) of Wisconsin was the author of leg­is­la­tion that placed a non-bind­ing ref­er­en­dum on the death penal­ty on the state’s bal­lot in Tuesday’s elec­tion. Although 56% of the vot­ers approved the death penal­ty pro­pos­al, which required that DNA evi­dence con­firm the con­vic­tion, Lasee said there was no chance of such a law pass­ing in the near future: ​“I am a real­ist. There is no…

The Washington Supreme Court has unan­i­mous­ly adopt­ed high­er stan­dards for death penal­ty attor­neys after a 2001 Seattle Post-Intelligencer news series revealed that 20% of the defense attor­neys who han­dled cap­i­tal cas­es in the state had been, or were lat­er, dis­barred, sus­pend­ed or arrest­ed. The reforms, enact­ed by the Court under Chief Justice Gerry Alexander, require Washington judges pre­sid­ing over death penal­ty cas­es to appoint defense attor­neys who have been screened by a…

2007: Virginia leg­is­la­ture passed 5 death-penal­ty expan­sion bills, which were vetoed by Gov. Tim Kaine. The leg­is­la­ture over­rode his vetoes for bills mak­ing mur­der of a wit­ness or a judge a cap­i­tal offense.Virginia Legislators And Victims Speak Against Death Penalty Two Virginia law­mak­ers who have had a fam­i­ly mem­ber mur­dered recent­ly spoke in oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty. During a sen­ate com­mit­tee hear­ing on a bill to impose a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, Senators Henry L.