Publications & Testimony

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 be able to go it alone…

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 and con­tin­ued by Alberto…

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 gov­ern­ment can’t provide certainty…

The most recent vol­ume of Criminology & Public Policy exam­ines the top­ic of race and polic­ing. Contributors to this spe­cial vol­ume offer time­ly insights in this con­tro­ver­sial area, with most agree­ing that more can be done to address the long-stand­ing ten­sion between street offi­cers and com­mu­ni­ties of col­or. The arti­cles fea­tured in the jour­nal are ​“The Importance of Research on Race and Policing: Making Race Salient to Individuals and Institutions Within Criminal Justice” by David A.

Because of the high costs of pur­su­ing death penal­ty cas­es, Georgia’s pub­lic defend­er sys­tem has run out of funds. Most of state’s 72 cap­i­tal cas­es have been brought to a stand­still. The judge in one recent high-pro­file case has put off jury selec­tion until September 10 because of the fund­ing cri­sis. The high-pro­file case involves Brian Nichols, who has been charged with the 2005 cour­t­house shoot­ing that left a judge, and three oth­er vic­tims dead. Because the death penal­ty is being sought for…

The lat­est edi­tion of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s ​“Death Row, USA” reports that the num­ber of peo­ple on death row in the United States rose slight­ly to 3,350 as of January 1, 2007, an increase of 6 inmates from October 1, 2006, but a decline of 23 inmates from a year ago. The slight increase appears to be part­ly the result of the rel­a­tive­ly few exe­cu­tions in the last quar­ter of 2006. California (660), Florida (397), and Texas (393) con­tin­ued to have the largest death row…

A mea­sure to repeal Nebraska​’s death penal­ty and replace it with a sen­tence of life with­out parole fell one vote short of mov­ing to the sec­ond of three stages in con­sid­er­a­tion by the uni­cam­er­al leg­is­la­ture. It was the first time the full leg­is­la­ture had debat­ed the death penal­ty in near­ly two decades. The mea­sure’s defeat fol­lowed two days of debate about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, includ­ing whether deci­sions to impose the death penal­ty reflect social, eco­nom­ic or racial bias. In addition,…

UPDATE: Henderson’s exe­cu­tion date of April 18 was stayed in order to con­sid­er new defense motions in the case. A new exe­cu­tion date of June 13 was ten­ta­tive­ly set. Upcoming Texas Execution Raises Questions of Appropriate Sentence Cathy Henderson (pic­tured with Sr. Helen Prejean) is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Texas on April 18 for the 1994 mur­der of Brandon Baugh, an infant she was babysit­ting. Henderson would be the 12^th woman put to death in the U.S. since cap­i­tal punishment was…

Cathy Henderson (pic­tured with Sr. Helen Prejean) is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Texas on April 18 for the 1994 mur­der of Brandon Baugh, an infant she was babysit­ting. Henderson would be the 12^th woman put to death in the U.S. since cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was rein­stat­ed. Since her arrest, Henderson has main­tained that the child’s death was acci­den­tal. She said that she dropped the baby, frac­tur­ing his skull, and then pan­icked after real­iz­ing she could not revive him. She then buried the boy’s…

Legislation to estab­lish a com­mis­sion to exam­ine Kentucky’s death penal­ty and report its find­ings to the General Assembly has gained sup­port from for­mer law enforce­ment offi­cials and vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers. The bill, pro­posed by Rep. Tom Burch, would require the task force to review whether cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment deters crime, is applied fair­ly, and is still accept­able to the pub­lic. It would mark the first time in four decades that the state has exam­ined its death penalty…