Publications & Testimony

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…

Though there is a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in Illinois, pros­e­cu­tors in the state are still seek­ing cap­i­tal con­vic­tions, and many juris­dic­tions are rely­ing on the tax­­pay­er-fund­ed Illinois Capital Litigation Fund to off­set the high costs of death penal­ty cas­es.​“It costs a lot of mon­ey,” observed 6^th Circuit Chief Judge John Shonkwiler when asked about the expens­es asso­ci­at­ed with cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment tri­als. Dee Dee Rentmeister, an admin­is­tra­tive assistant to…

Administrative Judge Fred G. Morrison Jr. has ruled that North Carolina prison offi­cials failed to live up to their promise that a doc­tor would mon­i­tor Willie Brown’s vital signs dur­ing his 2006 exe­cu­tion. Morrison, in his rul­ing, stat­ed that the prison offi­cials’ assur­ances that a doc­tor would par­tic­i­pate in the exe­cu­tion had​“per­suad­ed the judge to let them exe­cute Willie Brown.” He went on to note,​“The doc­tor did not observe the inmate nor did he monitor vital…

Former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr, a well-known con­ser­v­a­tive voice and a death penal­ty sup­port­er, recent­ly ques­tioned the fair­ness and accu­ra­cy of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in an opin­ion piece pub­lished by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Barr not­ed that a recent University of Virginia study of wrong­ful con­vic­tion cas­es has raised seri­ous ques­tions about the reli­a­bil­i­ty of eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion. He also applaud­ed the Georgia Supreme Court’s recent decision…