Publications & Testimony

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…

New Study Reveals Deficiencies in Eyewitness Identification Procedures; Legislative Review Set As Georgia law­mak­ers con­vene to review eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­ce­dures in the state, a new study by the Georgia Innocence Project has revealed that 83% of Georgia police agen­cies have no writ­ten rules on han­dling eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tions. Six men have been exon­er­at­ed in Georgia after DNA evi­dence proved their inno­cence and ​“every single one…

State Legislators Advance Bills to Ban Juvenile Death Penalty Just weeks after leg­is­la­tors in Wyoming and South Dakota passed leg­is­la­tion to ban the exe­cu­tion of juve­nile offend­ers, law­mak­ers in Florida are on a sim­i­lar course that may send a bill that elim­i­nates the death penal­ty for those under the age of 18 to Governor Jeb Bush for sig­na­ture into law. Members of the Florida Senate passed the juve­nile death penal­ty ban by a vote of 26 – 12, and the House is…

Passed a bill in July 2002, 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. On January 24, 2001, (SJR 3) a Joint Resolution, spon­sored by Sen. Simpson, was sub­mit­ted by the Delaware State Senate and the House of Representatives to estab­lish an independent,…

Connecticut Lags Behind in Death Penalty Reforms The Chair of Connecticut’s Judiciary Committee has called for enact­ment of death penal­ty reforms to pro­tect against wrong­ful con­vic­tions. Of the six reforms rec­om­mend­ed after a 13-month spe­cial com­mis­sion on Connecticut’s death penal­ty, only one has been enact­ed. Members of the com­mis­sion not­ed, ​“Experiences in oth­er states through­out the coun­try sug­gest that Connecticut can­not be com­pla­cent and ​‘best…

Colorado House Committee Advances Bill to Abolish Capital Punishment The House Judiciary Committee recent­ly vot­ed to abol­ish the state’s death penal­ty, replac­ing it with a sen­tence of life-with­out-parole, and use the mon­ey cur­rent­ly spent on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment to help solve 1,200 cold-case homi­cides in the state. The 7 – 4 vote fol­lowed four hours of tes­ti­mo­ny from mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers, state law enforce­ment offi­cials, and death penal­ty experts, includ­ing DPIC Executive Director…