Publications & Testimony

On July 10, Carlton Akee Turner is scheduled to be put to death in Texas for the murder of his adoptive parents when he was 19 years old. But a majority of the victims’ relatives are speaking out against the execution. Victim Tonya Carlton’s brother, Kelly Johnson, wrote in a petition to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, “I do not wish to see my sister’s only child executed. I believe in my heart that my sister would only have wanted Akee to receive the help that he needed to restore his mind…

A former California deputy district attorney recently explained how he had changed his views on the death penalty after once arguing for it at trial. From that experience, he concluded he “won’t do it again.” As the prosecutor in a heinous murder case, Darryl Stallworth found himself feeling more hesitant about the use of the death penalty as the trial progressed. Stallworth stated, “I was no longer certain what would be accomplished by executing [the defendant].” Although he argued for the…

Testimony of Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center, before the Nevada Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice regarding the costs of the death penalty and related issues (July 7, 2008; telephonic testimony)

Gerald Kogan, former Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, who has also served as a prosecutor, defense attorney, and trial judge, recently expressed concerns about Florida’s death penalty system. “Florida’s system of capital punishment is broken,” he wrote in the St. Petersburg Times. “Florida’s justice system fails on many fronts.” He pointed out that “Florida has become the holder of a dubious distinction: more individuals convicted of murder (22) have been exonerated from our death…

Legal scholar Cass Sunstein and researcher Justin Wolfers recently joined in an op-ed piece in the Washington Post responding to the U.S. Supreme Court’s citation of their work in Baze v. Rees, the decision that approved lethal injection and opened the way to recent executions. Justice Stevens had cited Wolfer’s research as evidence of the lack of deterrence of the death penalty while Justice Scalia cited Sunstein’s writings indicating a “a significant body of recent evidence that capital…

A recent law review article argues that capital defendants’ right to expert assistance would grow stronger through the revitalization of the 1983 Supreme Court decision in Ake v. Oklahoma. The author explains that recent court decisions and the revised American Bar Association Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Council in Death Penalty Cases “offer the hope that the theoretical entitlement of Ake will be fully realized.” As a result, the article argues that one of two…

On June 30^th, the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice released a 107-page report on the state’s capital punishment system, calling it “dysfunctional” and a “broken system.” The Commission, chaired by former Attorney General John Van de Kamp, came to the conclusion that California would save hundreds of millions of dollars if capital punishment was eliminated. The report states, “The families of murder victims are cruelly deluded into believing that justice will be…

According to a new study by the Associated Press, there has been a sharp drop in the use of the death penalty in Ohio as prosecutors are taking advantage of a new law allowing them to seek a sentence of life without parole without first pursuing the death penalty. The sentence of life without parole used to be only an option for jurors weighing an alternative to a death sentence. According to the AP, “Prosecutors around Ohio, citing the ability to pursue harsh punishment without going through…

According to a new study by the Associated Press, there has been a sharp drop in the use of the death penalty in Ohio as prosecutors are taking advantage of a new law allowing them to seek a sentence of life without parole without first pursuing the death penalty. The sentence of life without parole used to be only an option for jurors weighing an alternative to a death sentence. According to the AP, “Prosecutors around Ohio, citing the ability to pursue harsh punishment without going through…

Ohio prosecutors are taking advantage of their new option of life without parole, seeking it much more often than the death penalty. The life sentence without the possibility of parole used to only be an option for jurors weighing an alternative to a death sentence. “Prosecutors around Ohio, citing the ability to pursue harsh punishment without going through the complication and expense of a death penalty case are starting to take advantage of the 2005 law,” and the “number of death penalty…