Publications & Testimony

The New Mexico Supreme Court halt­ed a death penal­ty case against 2 prison inmates charged with killing a guard dur­ing a 1999 riot because the defense has received insuf­fi­cient fund­ing to pro­ceed. ​“Defense coun­sels’ com­pen­sa­tion is inad­e­quate under the facts of this case, vio­lat­ing defen­dants’ Sixth Amendment right to effec­tive assis­tance of coun­sel,” the court said in a unan­i­mous rul­ing. The court held that an addi­tion­al $200,000 must be appro­pri­at­ed by the leg­is­la­ture before the case…

A recent Washington Post opin­ion poll found that Marylanders pre­fer the sen­tence of life in prison over the death penal­ty. In the October 2007 poll of 1,103 Maryland adults, respon­dents were asked to choose between the sen­tence of life in prison with­out parole or the death penal­ty for the crime of mur­der: 52% said they favored life with­out parole and 43% sup­port­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Among black respon­dents, sup­port for life with­out parole was even stronger, with 65% responding that…

By Sujoy DharOct 29, 2007IPSBRUSSELS — On March 23, 1931, an Indian Sikh named Bhagat Singh attained mar­tyr­dom when he was hanged by the British for his role in the mil­i­tant free­dom strug­gle against the colo­nial rulers.About 75 years lat­er, Professor Jagmohan Singh, a nephew of the lib­er­a­tion hero, preach­es peace and mer­cy as he joins a world­wide cam­paign, espe­cial­ly in Europe, by his Sikh com­mu­ni­ty against death penal­ty. The life and work of Indian free­dom fighter Bhagat…

By ALISON LEIGH COWAN October 28, 2007New York…

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) has filed a judi­cial com­plaint against the Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Sharon Keller (pic­tured), the first time the group says it has ever filed a com­plaint against a judge. NACDL has asked the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct to review Judge Keller’s deci­sion to turn away the last appeal of a death row inmate because the rushed fil­ing was sub­mit­ted past the court’s 5 p.m. closing time.

The Spring 2007 edi­tion of the American Bar Association​’s Human Rights quar­ter­ly fea­tures a series of arti­cles by out­stand­ing authors about the death penal­ty, includ­ing a 30-year ret­ro­spec­tive on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the U.S. The arti­cles con­tained in the pub­li­ca­tion are: A Thirty-Year Retrospective of the Death Penalty By Stephen F. Hanlon Monitoring Death Sentencing Decisions: The Challenges and Barriers to Equity By Glenn L. Pierce and Michael L. Radelet Mental Disability and…

Funds for com­mu­ni­ty polic­ing pro­grams have been sig­nif­i­cant­ly slashed in recent years, a devel­op­ment that experts link to the gov­ern­men­t’s new focus on fight­ing ter­ror­ism. The U.S. Department of Justice pro­vid­ed $7 bil­lion in fed­er­al funds for com­mu­ni­ty polic­ing pro­grams between 1994 and 2001, but it has award­ed only $208 mil­lion for local depart­ments this year. ​“Many of those funds have been shift­ed to home­land secu­ri­ty, which also is very impor­tant in this day and age,” said University of…

The New York Court of Appeals ruled today (October 23, 2007) that the death sen­tence of the last remain­ing inmate on the state’s death row was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al under state law. John Taylor​’s sen­tence will be changed to life in prison with­out parole. An ear­li­er deci­sion by the state’s high court in 2004 over­turned the state’s statute because of flaws in the jury instruc­tions. (People v. LaValle). Following hear­ings on the prob­lems with cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state, the New…

Following the release of a new study pub­lished in the Journal of Adolescent Health con­cern­ing the fail­ure of deter­rence in drug use, med­ical experts com­ment­ed that deter­rence also fails in the area of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. ​“It is very clear that deter­rents are not effec­tive in the area of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment,” said Dr. Jonathan Groner, an asso­ciate pro­fes­sor of surgery at Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health who research­es the deter­rent effect of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. ​“The…

A for­mer Tennessee Attorney General, W.J. Cody, and a U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Gilbert Merritt, both mem­bers of the American Bar Association’s Tennessee Death Penalty Assessment Team, called on pol­i­cy­mak­ers to thor­ough­ly review the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment laws and imple­ment sig­nif­i­cant changes that address con­cerns such as wrong­ful con­vic­tions, meet­ing the needs of vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers, and ensur­ing that the state com­plies with min­i­mum stan­dards required for fair­ness in capital…