Publications & Testimony

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has grant­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion to Heliberto Chi, fol­low­ing the U.S. Supreme Court’s lead after it decid­ed to review Kentucky’s lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures. Chi was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on October 3. Attorneys for both the pros­e­cu­tion and defense said that the stay sig­nals a prob­a­ble slow­down, if not a com­plete shut­down, of exe­cu­tions in Texas until the Supreme Court issues a deci­sion in the lethal injec­tion case. Andrea Keilen, exec­u­tive director of…

In an edi­to­r­i­al that fol­lowed a four-part news series review­ing death penal­ty-eli­gi­ble mur­der cas­es in Georgia between 1995 and 2004, the Atlanta Journal Constitution called on the state to aban­don cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment because death sen­tences are often unfair­ly influ­enced by geog­ra­phy, a pros­e­cu­tor’s per­son­al pol­i­tics, or the vic­tim’s race. The paper also said that Georgia fails to meet min­i­mum stan­dards to ensure an accu­rate and fair cap­i­tal punishment system,…

On October 10, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear argu­ments in Medellin v. Texas, a case that will deter­mine whether President Bush over­stepped his author­i­ty by order­ing state courts to com­ply with a 2004 International Court of Justice (ICJ) rul­ing. The case involves Texas death row inmate Jose Medellin, one of 51 Mexican for­eign nation­als who were denied their right to con­tact Mexican con­sular offi­cials after their arrest. The ICJ’s 2004 rul­ing called on U.S. courts to review the cases in…

In the wake of more than 200 exon­er­a­tions based on DNA evi­dence, includ­ing some wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed death row pris­on­ers, juris­dic­tions through­out the U.S. are enact­ing key pol­i­cy reforms that add safe­guards to pro­tect against wrong­ful con­vic­tions and pro­vide inmates with bet­ter access to cru­cial evi­dence dur­ing appeals. All but eight states now give inmates vary­ing degrees of access to DNA evi­dence that might not have been avail­able at the time of their con­vic­tions, and many states are…

In ​“Jingle Jangle,” author Jim Rix tells the sto­ry of his cousin, Ray Krone, who was wrong­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to die in 1992 for the mur­der of a bar­tender in Phoenix. The book details efforts to exon­er­ate Krone, includ­ing the impor­tant role Rix played in inves­ti­gat­ing his cous­in’s inno­cence claim. ​“Jingle Jangle” reveals how inac­cu­rate tes­ti­mo­ny from a foren­sic sci­ence expert and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct led to Krone’s wrong­ful con­vic­tion. It also close­ly exam­ines oth­er problems that…

“The Death Penalty: America’s Experience with Capital Punishment” by Professors Raymond Paternoster, Robert Brame, and Sarah Bacon is a com­pre­hen­sive review of the death penal­ty in the U.S. Issues cov­ered include the his­to­ry of the death penal­ty in America and the chang­ing nature of the U.S. death penal­ty, includ­ing such top­ics as eli­gi­ble crimes, tri­al pro­ce­dures, and meth­ods of exe­cu­tion. In addi­tion, the book cov­ers ques­tions about the influ­ence of race on the death penal­ty, the execution…

The Justice Project has released two new pol­i­cy reviews about jail­house snitch tes­ti­mo­ny and expand­ed dis­cov­ery in crim­i­nal cas­es, both top­ics that are part of the orga­ni­za­tion’s broad­er National Agenda for Reform ini­tia­tive. Jailhouse Snitch Testimony: A Policy Review offers rec­om­men­da­tions and solu­tions for improv­ing the stan­dards of admis­si­bil­i­ty of in-cus­tody infor­mant or ​“snitch tes­ti­mo­ny.” The review includes an overview of cur­rent snitch tes­ti­mo­ny laws, case stud­ies, information about…

Two exe­cu­tions sched­uled to take place on Thursday, September 27, in Alabama and Texas were stayed just two days after the U.S. Supreme Court announced it will con­sid­er the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Kentucky’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col. In Alabama, Governor Bob Riley grant­ed Thomas Arthur a 45-day stay of exe­cu­tion to allow time for the state to change its cur­rent lethal injec­tion pro­to­col. The change is designed to address con­cerns that inmates are not ful­ly uncon­scious when given…

Italian Premier Romano Prodi called for a world­wide mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty in an address to world lead­ers at the United Nations General Assembly. Prodi advo­cat­ed pas­sage of a U.N. mora­to­ri­um res­o­lu­tion, say­ing, ​“If gen­uine pol­i­tics means show­ing fore­sight, we shall per­form a great polit­i­cal act through the adop­tion of this res­o­lu­tion. It will demon­strate that humankind isn’t capa­ble of mak­ing progress only in sci­ence but also in the field of ethics.” Prodi told the…

According to a new study released by the American Bar Association, Ohio’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem is so flawed that it should be sus­pend­ed while the state con­ducts a thor­ough review of its fair­ness and accu­ra­cy. The study, con­duct­ed by a 10-mem­ber pan­el of Ohio attor­neys appoint­ed by the ABA, found that the state’s death penal­ty is prone to racial and geo­graph­ic imbal­ances and that it meets only four of the 93 ABA rec­om­men­da­tions to ensure a fair capital…