Publications & Testimony

A new book by Bruce Watson exam­ines the case of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immi­grants whose guilt remains in seri­ous doubt eight decades after Massachusetts car­ried out their death sen­tences. The book, ​“Sacco & Vanzetti: The Men, the Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind” (Viking, 2007), pro­vides a fac­tu­al account of the case sur­round­ing the two men, who were con­vict­ed of steal­ing a shoe fac­to­ry’s pay envelopes and killing four peo­ple in the…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit re-affirmed its 2005 rul­ing that Kenny Richey​’s cap­i­tal con­vic­tion and death sen­tence should be over­turned because he received inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion at tri­al. Richey is on death row for the 1986 arson mur­der of a two-year-old girl who was in his care, an event that he main­tains was an acci­dent. Richey is a dual cit­i­zen of the U.S. and Scotland, hav­ing been raised in Scotland before com­ing to Ohio. The Sixth…

A new study by law pro­fes­sors Eric Freedman of Hofstra and David Dow of the University of Houston found that, before the pas­sage of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act in1996, death row inmates who filed habeas cor­pus peti­tions in fed­er­al court suc­ceed­ed in over­turn­ing their con­vic­tions or death sen­tences about 40% of the time. After pas­sage of the 1996 law which restrict­ed the Courts’ pow­er to over­turn state deci­sions, the num­ber of successful appeals…

After lengthy, inten­sive inter­ro­ga­tions, which in some cas­es includ­ed threats to pur­sue the death penal­ty, four enlist­ed Navy sailors con­fessed to a rape and mur­der in Norfolk, Va. that occurred in 1997. Now, con­vinc­ing new evi­dence has emerged indi­cat­ing that all four may be inno­cent. A recent New York Times Magazine arti­cle describes how three of the men — Danial Williams, Joseph Dick, and Derek Tice — were sen­tenced to life with­out parole for the rape and murder of…

The DePaul University College of Law’s Center for Justice in Capital Cases offers a broad range of cut­t­ing-edge train­ing pro­grams for those inter­est­ed in death penal­ty law, includ­ing a wealth of free pub­li­ca­tions and man­u­als that cap­i­tal defense attor­neys may find use­ful. Founded in 2000, the Center is a resource for death penal­ty attor­neys across the nation, pro­vid­ing train­ing and pro­fes­sion­al sem­i­nars on top­ics such as tri­al and mitigation…

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The Fort Worth Star-Telegram is urg­ing the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Texas Governor Rick Perry to spare the life of Kenneth Foster (pic­tured), whose exe­cu­tion is sched­uled for August 30. Foster was sen­tenced to death under the Texas Law of Parties that per­mits a per­son involved in a crime to be held account­able for the actions com­mit­ted by some­one else. In this case, Texas main­tains that Foster deserves the death penal­ty because he should have anticipated that…

U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy (D‑VT) and Arlen Specter (R‑PA) (pic­tured) are urg­ing the Justice Department to delay new rules that would give Attorney General Alberto Gonzales author­i­ty to lim­it the time death row inmates spend pur­su­ing appeals before being exe­cut­ed. Senator Leahy chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Specter is the rank­ing Republican mem­ber of that com­mit­tee. The two recent­ly sent a bipar­ti­san let­ter to Gonzales express­ing con­cerns about whether…

Nearly two decades after the 1988 rob­bery and mur­der of James Scanlon, his fam­i­ly now says that a sen­tence of life with­out parole for his killer — Ronald Rompilla — will end years of emo­tion­al strain result­ing from the death penal­ty and will help them to start the heal­ing process.​“It’s time to start remem­ber­ing my dad for the good per­son he was and not always affil­i­at­ing it with Ronald Rompilla and the death penal­ty. … (I)t was time. I did­n’t think going after it again…

The Justice Department is final­iz­ing reg­u­la­tions that could give Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales (pic­tured) the abil­i­ty to short­en the time that death row inmates have to appeal their case in fed­er­al court, a change that many crit­ics believe will make cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment more unfair and inac­cu­rate. Under the 2006 reau­tho­riza­tion of the Patriot Act, the Attorney General was giv­en the pow­er to decide whether indi­vid­ual states are pro­vid­ing ade­quate counsel for…