Publications & Testimony

The U.S. Supreme Court’s deci­sion in Uttecht v. Brown on June 4, 2007 appears to enhance the state’s abil­i­ty to remove poten­tial jurors with doubts about the death penal­ty. But by expand­ing the class of peo­ple who can­not serve on cap­i­tal juries, the deci­sion may ulti­mate­ly ren­der the death penal­ty invalid as juries fail to rep­re­sent the true diver­si­ty of the American pub­lic. In a 5 – 4 deci­sion over­turn­ing an opin­ion writ­ten by Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed Cathy Henderson​’s sched­uled exe­cu­tion of June 13 and has remand­ed her case back to the tri­al court for a more care­ful review of new sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence that casts doubt on the state’s claim that she inten­tion­al­ly killed Brandon Baugh, an infant in her care. The appeals court deci­sion was large­ly based on a recent affi­davit sub­mit­ted by for­mer Travis County med­ical exam­in­er Dr. Roberto Bayardo (pic­tured), whose expert…

By a vote of 79 – 14, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed bipar­ti­san leg­is­la­tion cre­at­ing a study com­mis­sion to exam­ine the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem. A sim­i­lar mea­sure unan­i­mous­ly passed the state’s Senate in May, just one month after the American Bar Association issued a report find­ing that the state was not in full com­pli­ance with most of the bench­marks estab­lished to guar­an­tee a fair death penal­ty sys­tem. The new commission will…

Rwanda​’s par­lia­ment has vot­ed to abol­ish the death penal­ty and replace it with life with­out parole, a move that offi­cials hope will clear the way for sus­pects in the nation’s 1994 geno­cide to be extra­dit­ed back to Rwanda for tri­al. Many of the sus­pects are believed to be at large in Europe, North America, and West Africa, regions where many coun­tries refuse to extra­dite crim­i­nal sus­pects to nations that con­tin­ue to prac­tice cap­i­tal punishment or…

Read the Newsweek Feature About DPIC’s Poll & ReportThe Trials of Darryl Hunt pre­mieres around the USA DPIC’s New Poll and Report Shows America Becoming More Distant from the Death Penalty Because of mis­takes and a lack of effi­ca­cy, the death penal­ty is los­ing the con­fi­dence of the American pub­lic, accord­ing to a new poll and report issued by the Death Penalty Information Center. Nearly 40% of the American pub­lic believes they would be dis­qual­i­fied from serving on…

A new require­ment that every death sen­tence be reviewed and approved by China’s high­est court has result­ed in a sharp decline in exe­cu­tions there. A spokesman for the Supreme People’s Court in China said that low­er courts are report­ing a 10% drop in exe­cu­tions dur­ing the first five months of 2007. Human rights experts esti­mate that China exe­cutes 10,000 — 15,000 peo­ple each year, more than the rest of the world com­bined, but offi­cials do not release spe­cif­ic num­bers to the…

According to a new report and opin­ion poll issued today by the Death Penalty Information Center, the American pub­lic is los­ing con­fi­dence in the death penal­ty as doubts about inno­cence and the pur­pose of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment increase. The report, A Crisis of Confidence: Americans’ Doubts About the Death Penalty, is based on a recent nation­al opin­ion poll con­duct­ed by RT Strategies and com­mis­sioned by DPIC.​“Public con­fi­dence in the death penal­ty has clearly eroded…

In a recent edi­to­r­i­al, the Los Angeles Times voiced con­cerns about a Louisiana Supreme Court deci­sion uphold­ing the death sen­tence of Patrick Kennedy for the rape of his 8‑year-old step­daugh­ter. The paper said the Louisiana court’s deci­sion to allow the death penal­ty in such cas­es could lead states to seek the death penal­ty for oth­er non-mur­der crimes, a devel­op­ment that would wors­en an already dys­func­tion­al death penal­ty sys­tem. The edi­to­r­i­al not­ed: The United…

Although the Supreme Court struck down race-based strikes of poten­tial jurors more than two decades ago in Batson v. Kentucky, the deci­sion has fall­en short of its goal. For exam­ple, in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, a recent study has revealed that poten­tial black jurors are struck three times as often as white jurors in the parish. This does not include the jurors struck for being unable to fol­low death penal­ty law by the judge. A Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center review of 390…

The League of Women Voters of Florida is urg­ing Governor Charlie Crist to con­tin­ue the mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions and to con­sid­er alter­na­tive sen­tences. In a let­ter from Florida League President Dianne Wheatley-Giliotti to Governor Crist, the orga­ni­za­tion not­ed that con­cerns about fair­ness, inno­cence, costs, and pub­lic safe­ty have led them to ques­tion the val­ue of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. In their call for a mora­to­ri­um, the…