Publications & Testimony

Texas death row inmate Jose Briseno was issued a stay of execution by a Texas judge so his pen-pal from England could fly to the state to meet him before he was executed by lethal injection. Briseno’s attorney, Richard Burr, said the stay “had to do with Jose’s extraordinary ability to reach out to people all over the US and the world — as a pen-friend — to offer support and kindness.” In late November, Burr filed a motion with the trial court in South Texas asking that the execution date of…

The Texas Tech Law Review’s latest edition is focused on innocence and the death penalty. Among the articles included, are, “Presumed Guilty: A Death Row Exoneree Shares His Story of Supreme Injustice and Reflections on the Death Penalty,” by Juan Roberto Melendez; “Toward a New Paradigm of Criminal Justice: How the Innocence Movement Merges Crime Control and Due Process,” by Keith A. Findley; “The Role of the Innocence Argument in Contemporary Death Penalty Debates,” by Michael Radelet; and…

The prison news magazine The Angolite features an in-depth piece on the use of capital punishment around the world in its recent isssue. Citing a 2008 Amnesty International report, the article notes that China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, and the United States lead the world in executions. Japan, the only other industrialized democracy besides the U.S. that uses capital punishment, averages five executions a year but is known for inhumane death row conditions. Author and inmate Lane Nelson details…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned a Texas defendant’s conviction and death sentence because of racial bias by the prosecution in jury selection. Jonathan Reed, the defendant, had been convicted in 1979 of murder during a trial at which all five of the eligible African-American potential jurors were removed by the prosecution. The Fifth Circuit, which has upheld many death sentences from the state with the most executions in the country, based its ruling on the U.S.

The News & Record of North Carolina recently featured an editorial encouraging the state’s legislature and governor to abolish the death penalty. The editorial noted the controversies that have surrounded the use of capital punishment in the state, including disagreement about lethal injections and the inconsistent way the penalty has been applied. The declining number of death sentences and the extensive time needed before an execution can take place led the paper to conclude the state “should…

Oregon Supreme Court Justice Martha Walters recently suggested that it is time to review the constitutionality of the death penalty. Concurring in Oregon v. Michael Davis, Justice Walters wrote, “When presented with the opportunity to do so, I urge this court to consider our state’s experience in imposing the death penalty and to examine its constitutionality anew.“ Justice Walters acknowledged that the death penalty has been upheld in the past, but noted that the times had changed and that…

A recent editorial in the Washington Post cited trends and statistics from DPIC’s 2008 Year End Report in calling for an end to the death penalty in Maryland. The paper urged Maryland lawmakers to “heed the march of history” and noted that use of the death penalty is declining around the country: “According to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that studies capital punishment, executions nationwide reached a 14-year low in 2008, with only 37 executions carried out…