Publications & Testimony

A new study published in the Houston Law Review, “Racial Disparities in the Capital of Capital Punishment,” explores the relationship of race to death sentencing in Harris County (Houston), Texas. In the study, Prof. Scott Phillips of the University of Denver explores patterns involving the race of both victims and defendants, while controlling for other variables. Phillips concludes death sentences were more likely to be imposed in cases with white victims than in those with black victims, and…

The state of Washington has carried out 4 executions in 45 years, the last one being in 2001 when James Elledge waived his appeals and was executed. Some prosecutors, legislators, and defense attorneys are questioning the value of keeping the system. Kitsap County Prosecutor Russell Hauge (pictured) supports the death penalty but has decided against seeking it in a recent case because he felt the appeals process would simply never end. “In terms of justice, the worst thing that could have…

States with the death penalty have consistently had higher murder rates than states without the death penalty. If the death penalty was acting as a deterrent to murder, one might expect that the gap between these two groups would lessen over a long period of time as states using the death penalty obtained an advantage in reducing murders. However, the gap has grown larger over the past 18 years. In 2007, states with the death penalty had a 42% higher murder rate than states without the death…

Professsors Saundra Westervelt and Kimberly Cook of the University of North Carolina recently published a study entitled “Coping with Innocence After Death Row.” The study appeared in “Contexts” published by the American Sociological Association. The authors studied the lives of 18 innocent men and women exonerated from death row. The unique research uncovers the difficulty the exonerees have had in adapting to life outside of prison without the process of “delabeling,” or recognition of their…

American Medical Association and EMT Association Say Participation in Executions Violates Medical Ethics Anesthesiologists Advised to Avoid Lethal Injections American Board of Anesthesiology Forbidding Participation by Members in Executions (April 2, 2010) American Nurses Association Position Statement on Capital Punishment and Nurses’ Participation in Capital Punishment (Dec. 2016); American Nurses Association Position on Nurse Participation in Executions (Jan. 28, 2010) International Nurses…

Attorneys for Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis will have the opportunity to argue before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11^th Circuit on December 9 in Atlanta. The Court will hear arguments on whether Davis can file a second federal challenge to his conviction based on new evidence of his innocence. The Court stayed Davis’ execution shortly before he was to receive a lethal injection so that it could review the constitutional issues in his case. Davis’ case has…

The North Carolina Supreme Court heard arguments on November 18 on whether the state’s Medical Board can sanction doctors who participate in an execution. The Board forbids physician participation in executiions as a violation of the medical code of ethics. At the same time, North Carolina’s death penalty statute requires a physician’s presence at all executions. A Wake County judge ruled last year that the Medical Board had overstepped its authority and the state law took precedence, a…