Publications & Testimony

Massachusetts Again Votes Overwhelmingly Against Reinstating Death Penalty After over an hour of debate, the Massachusetts House of Representatives over­whelm­ing­ly reject­ed an attempt to rein­state the death penal­ty. Prior to the 110 – 46 vote, Governor Deval Patrick had vowed to veto the bill if it were approved. The bill was sim­i­lar to one sub­mit­ted by for­mer Governor Mitt Romney as a…

NEW VOICES: Law Enforcement Officials Gather in Maryland to Oppose Death Penalty Corrections offi­cials, pros­e­cu­tors and police chiefs recent­ly gath­ered in Annapolis, Maryland, to voice sup­port for a leg­isla­tive mea­sure that would repeal the state’s death penal­ty.​“It is a human sys­tem, and because it is fal­li­ble and because it is human, it makes mis­takes. Executions make…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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…

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.

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.

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…