Publications & Testimony

Pennsylvania has con­vened a com­mis­sion of judges, pros­e­cu­tors, defense attor­neys, law enforce­ment offi­cers and vic­tims’ advo­cates to study the caus­es of wrong­ful con­vic­tions and make rec­om­men­da­tions for pre­vent­ing them in the state. Forensic errors, mis­tak­en eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tions and false con­fes­sions have led to wrong­ful con­vic­tions around the nation, includ­ing 9 peo­ple from Pennsylvania who have been exon­er­at­ed by DNA evi­dence. The…

In 2006, U.S. District Judge Malcolm J. Howard allowed two men to be exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion after prison offi­cials indi­cat­ed that a physi­cian and a nurse at the exe­cu­tion would mon­i­tor a type of brain-wave machine to ensure that the inmates were uncon­scious and not in pain when the par­a­lyz­ing and heart-stop­ping drugs were inject­ed. However, a depo­si­tion giv­en in November 2006 by Central Prison war­den Marvin Polk (pic­tured) is now rais­ing ques­tions about whether…

The Global Debate on the Death Penalty by Sandra Babcock, Human Rights, American Bar Association, Spring 2007 • Vol. 34, No. 2Richard Cohen,​“Let Saddam Live.” Washington Post, December 18, 2003Richard Dieter,​“International Influence on the Death Penalty in the U.S.” Foreign Service Journal, October 2003.Shapiro, Bruce,​“Dead…

What does the cross tell us about the ethics of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment?by Tobias WinrightSojourners Magazine April…

The Justice Project, in con­junc­tion with The Justice Project Education Fund, has issued two com­pre­hen­sive pol­i­cy reviews designed to facil­i­tate com­mu­ni­ca­tion among local law enforce­ment agen­cies, pol­i­cy­mak­ers, prac­ti­tion­ers, and oth­ers who are con­cerned about the issues of eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and the electronic…

“Sacco and Vanzetti” is an 80-minute-long doc­u­men­tary that tells the sto­ry of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immi­grants who were accused of a mur­der in 1920, and exe­cut­ed in Boston in 1927 after a con­tro­ver­sial tri­al. It is the first major doc­u­men­tary film about this land­mark sto­ry, which came to sym­bol­ize the bias against immi­grants by some in America. At the time of their exe­cu­tion, mil­lions of peo­ple in the U.S. and around the world…

Jim Davidsaver, a 20-year vet­er­an with the Lincoln Police Department in Nebraska, recent­ly wrote a col­umn out­lin­ing his sup­port for leg­is­la­tion that would have repealed the state’s death penal­ty. Davidsaver said he sup­port­ed the mea­sure, which failed to pass into law, because the death penal­ty does not deter crime and is too expen­sive. He not­ed that in his years of ser­vice with the police force he wit­nessed many hor­rif­ic crime scenes, but…

Alabama is the only state that does not pro­vide attor­neys for indi­gent death row inmates through­out their state appeal. Lawyers rep­re­sent­ing some of those on death row in the state will soon ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case chal­leng­ing this prac­tice. The attor­neys will ask the Court to deter­mine whether peo­ple fac­ing exe­cu­tion have a con­sti­tu­tion­al right to an attor­ney as part of their right of mean­ing­ful access to the courts. Alabama main­tains that it should…

Prior to their dis­missals, three fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors whose fir­ings are under scruti­ny by Congress were engaged in a strug­gle with the Justice Department over its expand­ed pur­suit of the fed­er­al death penal­ty. Paul Charlton of Arizona, Margaret Chiara of Michigan, and Kevin Ryan of California were all crit­i­cized by Justice offi­cials for fail­ing to seek death sen­tences as part of a broad­er use of the fed­er­al death penal­ty begun by for­mer Attorney General John Ashcroft…

After decades of main­tain­ing a posi­tion that the gov­ern­ment should have the legal right to impose cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, the Chicago Tribune is now call­ing for abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty. Noting con­cerns about inno­cence, the arbi­trary nature of the pun­ish­ment, and the pub­lic’s shift away from the death penal­ty, the Tribune announced on March 25 that,​“The evi­dence of mis­takes, the evi­dence of arbi­trary deci­sions, the sober­ing knowledge that…