Publications & Testimony

2007: passed a bill mak­ing mur­der of a child under 14 a death-eli­gi­ble offense.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.In February 2003, the Utah Legislature unan­i­mous­ly approved a bill to pro­hib­it the exe­cu­tion of those with…

Victims’ Advocates, Prosecutors Caution Against Expansion of Texas Death Penalty Victims’ advo­cates and pros­e­cu­tors are urg­ing Texas leg­is­la­tors to exclude the death penal­ty from new leg­is­la­tion designed to tough­en penal­ties for repeat child moles­ters. Those opposed to the mea­sure fear that threat­en­ing death sen­tences for sex offend­ers could lead to few­er report­ed cas­es of sex crimes and might even give incen­tive to offend­ers to kill their vic­tims to pre­vent the child from…

Tennessee Legislature Overwhelmingly Approves Death Penalty Study By a vote of 79 – 14, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed bipar­ti­san leg­is­la­tion cre­at­ing a study com­mis­sion to exam­ine the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem. A sim­i­lar mea­sure unan­i­mous­ly passed the state’s Senate in May, just one month after the American Bar Association issued a report find­ing that the state was not in full com­pli­ance with most of the benchmarks…

South Carolina and Oklahoma Governors Sign Bills Expanding Death Penalty South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry have signed into law leg­is­la­tion that allows proseuc­tors to seek the death penal­ty for repeat child moles­ters. The new South Carolina law allows a death sen­tence if the accused has been twice con­vict­ed of rap­ing a child younger than 11-years-old. It also sets a 25-year manda­to­ry min­i­mum prison sen­tence for some sex offend­ers, mandates…

Pennsylvania Commission to Study Wrongful Convictions Pennsylvania has con­vened a com­mis­sion of judges, pros­e­cu­tors, defense attor­neys, law enforce­ment offi­cers and vic­tims’ advo­cates to study the caus­es of wrong­ful con­vic­tions and make rec­om­men­da­tions for pre­vent­ing them in the state. Forensic errors, mis­tak­en eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tions and false con­fes­sions have led to wrong­ful con­vic­tions around the nation, includ­ing 9 peo­ple from Pennsylvania who have…

South Carolina and Oklahoma Governors Sign Bills Expanding Death Penalty South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry have signed into law leg­is­la­tion that allows proseuc­tors to seek the death penal­ty for repeat child moles­ters. The new South Carolina law allows a death sen­tence if the accused has been twice con­vict­ed of rap­ing a child younger than 11-years-old. It also sets a 25-year manda­to­ry min­i­mum prison sen­tence for some sex offend­ers, mandates…

Conservative Support Moves Ohio Death Penalty Study Bill With bipar­ti­san sup­port, Ohio’s House of Representatives passed a bill to cre­ate an 18-mem­ber com­mit­tee to con­duct an exhaus­tive study of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state. Under the bill, which passed by a vote of 64 – 30 in the Republican-con­trolled House, the com­mit­tee would exam­ine all cap­i­tal tri­als since the state rein­stat­ed the pun­ish­ment in 1981. The com­mit­tee would exam­ine issues such as race,…

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Closing of the Capital Defender Office Will Save the State Millions as New York’s Death Penalty Ends New York’s Capital Defender Office is prepar­ing to close its doors in the wake of a N.Y. Court of Appeals rul­ing that dis­posed of the final appeal of a death sen­tence under the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment law declared uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in 2004. ​“It is … my inten­tion to close the office as soon as prac­ti­cal­ly pos­si­ble,” said Kevin M. Doyle, who has served as Executive Director of the…

New Mexico House Approves Death Penalty Repeal Bill The New Mexico House of Representatives has approved leg­is­la­tion that would repeal the death penal­ty and replace it with a sen­tence of life with­out parole. Supporters of the mea­sure say that it will save tax­pay­ers an esti­mat­ed $3 mil­lion a year, mon­ey they con­tend would be bet­ter spent on help­ing vic­tims’ fam­i­lies. They also note that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment could result in an innocent person…