Publications & Testimony

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 League…

The costs of the death penal­ty are a key fac­tor affect­ing the qual­i­ty of rep­re­sen­ta­tion in cap­i­tal cas­es in at least three states. Lack of rep­re­sen­ta­tion in parts of the death penal­ty process has been cit­ed recent­ly in courts in Georgia, Alabama, and Utah. Budget prob­lems at the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council have pre­vent­ed pay­ments to lawyers since March 1, accord­ing to an offi­cial at the Council. Defense attor­neys say the states’ inabil­i­ty to meet the costs associated with…

The Florida Supreme Court reduced a death sen­tence to life with­out parole because of the defen­dan­t’s seri­ous men­tal ill­ness. The court not­ed that this was ​“one of the most doc­u­ment­ed cas­es of seri­ous men­tal ill­ness­es this court has reviewed.” In its deci­sion reject­ing the tri­al judge’s death sen­tence for Christopher Offord (pic­tured), the jus­tices unan­i­mous­ly held that the death penal­ty was a dis­pro­por­tion­ate pun­ish­ment due to Offord’s long-stand­ing men­tal prob­lems. Medical…

In an impor­tant rul­ing, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has thrown out the death sen­tence of Kenisha Berry, who was sen­tenced to death in 1998 for the mur­der of her infant son, Malachi. The 5 – 4 deci­sion stat­ed that Jefferson County pros­e­cu­tors mis­stat­ed the spe­cial issue pre­sent­ed to jurors regard­ing Berry’s like­li­hood of being a future dan­ger to soci­ety, one of the key ques­tions Texas jurors con­sid­er when they are delib­er­at­ing a death sen­tence. Berry’s attorneys…

Last year, pros­e­cu­tors in two neigh­bor­ing Arizona coun­ties, Pima and Maricopa, sought the death penal­ty at dra­mat­i­cal­ly dif­fer­ent rates, a fact that has many ques­tion­ing the arbi­trary nature of the state’s death penal­ty. Though just five years ago it had the high­est rate of death penal­ty cas­es in the nation, Pima County now ranks among the low­est. County Attorney Barbara LaWall sought the death penal­ty for 1 of 65 accused mur­der­ers last year, but in bor­der­ing Maricopa County, 44 of 89…

With a num­ber of exe­cu­tions of inmates who have waived their appeals approach­ing in the U.S., Amnesty International has released a new report, ​“Prisoner-assist­ed homi­cide – more ​‘vol­un­teer’ exe­cu­tions loom.” The report address­es the fact that about 12% of exe­cu­tions in the U.S. since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed have been of inmates who gave up appeals that would have extend­ed their time on death row. The report looks at some of the pos­si­ble rea­sons for the large…

“Towards the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Africa: A Human Rights Perspective” is a new book by Lilian Chenwi that exam­ines the his­to­ry of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Africa and the con­ti­nen­t’s emerg­ing trend away from the death penal­ty. In her book, Chenwi details the impact that both inter­na­tion­al human rights orga­ni­za­tions and inter­na­tion­al treaties have had on shift­ing African views about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. This resource includes chap­ters on the his­to­ry and cur­rent state of capital…

California has pro­posed new lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures that attempt to sat­is­fy the con­cerns raised by U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel, who found that the state’s pre­vi­ous prac­tice was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. The new pro­to­col does not change the exist­ing three-drug cock­tail and will not require a doc­tor’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in exe­cu­tions. Defense attor­neys for Michael Morales, whose appeal led to the state’s cur­rent mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, said the new pro­to­col ​“fails to con­form to the…

A new Web page launched by the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty fea­tures infor­ma­tion about four men who have been exe­cut­ed but who may have been inno­cent. The site, based on NCADP’s report ​“Innocent and Executed: Four Chapters in the Life and Death of America’s Death Penalty,” pro­vides an in-depth look at the strong post-exe­cu­tion inno­cence claims that have sur­faced in the cas­es of Cameron Todd Willingham, Carlos DeLuna, and Ruben Cantu, all of Texas, and Larry Griffin…

Byron Halsey, who nar­row­ly escaped a death sen­tence in New Jersey in 1988, had his con­vic­tion vacat­ed after DNA tests point­ed to anoth­er man as the assailant. Halsey’s defense attor­neys from the New York-based Innocence Project and the Union County District Attorney’s Office had asked a state judge to grant a joint motion to vacate Halsey’s con­vic­tion for the sex­u­al assault and mur­der of two young chil­dren. The motion states that DNA test­ing on sev­er­al key pieces of…