Publications & Testimony

The doc­u­men­tary film Race To Execution by Rachel Lyon will air nation­al­ly on the Emmy Award-win­n­ing PBS series Independent Lens on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 at 10 p.m. Race to Execution offers a com­pelling and orig­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion of America’s death penal­ty, prob­ing how race dis­crim­i­na­tion infects the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. The film reveals the poten­tial bias­es in the racial por­tray­al of vic­tims and per­pe­tra­tors in the media, particularly where…

Litigating in the Shadow of Death by the late Welsh White is an absorb­ing account of the ways in which defense attor­neys rep­re­sent cap­i­tal defen­dants. The author brings to light the para­mount role these attor­neys have played in shap­ing the mod­ern sys­tem of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, show­ing how high­ly skilled defense lawyers are some­times able to avoid death sen­tences for their clients even in very dif­fi­cult cas­es. In oth­er cas­es, attor­neys have demon­strat­ed to the…

In her book,​“Lethal Punishment: Lynchings and Legal Executions in the South,” University of Memphis pro­fes­sor Margaret Vandiver explores the com­plex rela­tion­ship between these two forms of pun­ish­ment and chal­lenges the assump­tion that exe­cu­tions con­sis­tent­ly grew out of — and replaced — lynch­ings. Vandiver’s book exam­ines lynch­ings and legal exe­cu­tions in three cul­tur­al­ly and geo­graph­i­cal­ly dis­tinct south­ern regions. First she researched rural northwest…

Florida Commission Recommends Changes to Lethal Injection Process ABA Panel Finds Executions in Indiana​‘Random’ The Indiana Death Penalty Assessment Team, under the aus­pices of the American Bar Association, has called for a halt to exe­cu­tions in the state because of con­cerns about the arbi­trari­ness of the state’s death penal­ty.​“The seem­ing­ly ran­dom process of charg­ing deci­sions, plea agree­ments, and jury rec­om­men­da­tions is just part of a death…

According to a recent Maryland poll, a large major­i­ty of vot­ers in the state sup­port replac­ing the death penal­ty with a sen­tence of life with­out parole. The poll, con­duct­ed by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc., found that 61% of those sur­veyed believe that the sen­tence of life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole is​“an accept­able sub­sti­tute for the death penal­ty.” Only 27% of respon­dents dis­agreed. Support for life with­out parole in Maryland has…

The French par­lia­ment vot­ed to amend the coun­try’s Constitution to include an explic­it ban on the death penal­ty. In a spe­cial joint ses­sion held at the Palace of Versailles (pic­tured), France’s National Assembly and Senate passed the amend­ment by a vote of 828 – 26. The death penal­ty has been out­lawed in France since 1981, but the recent­ly passed amend­ment offi­cial­ly inscribes the pro­hi­bi­tion into the con­sti­tu­tion.​“We are accom­plish­ing the wish…

In​“Last Words From Death Row: The Walls Unit,” Norma Herrera recounts the tribu­la­tions she and her fam­i­ly suf­fered as they worked to free her broth­er, Leonel, from death row in Texas. The book doc­u­ments court events and press cov­er­age of the case and cap­tures the fam­i­ly’s efforts to assist Leonel pri­or to his exe­cu­tion in 1993, four months after the U.S. Supreme Court held in Herrera v. Collins that, in the absence of oth­er con­sti­tu­tion­al vio­la­tions, new evidence of…

The Montana Senate has vot­ed to abol­ish the state’s death penal­ty law. Supporters of the mea­sure not­ed that the death penal­ty does not deter crime, is expen­sive, increas­es the suf­fer­ing of vic­tims’ fam­i­lies who must endure a lengthy manda­to­ry appeals process, and is not applied fair­ly or accu­rate­ly.​“It’s not right. You can’t do it fair­ly, you can’t do it with equi­ty, you can’t do it with jus­tice,” said Democratic Senator Steve Gallus. Among the Republican…

The Indiana Death Penalty Assessment Team, under the aus­pices of the American Bar Association, has called for a halt to exe­cu­tions in the state because of con­cerns about the arbi­trari­ness of the state’s death penal­ty.​“The seem­ing­ly ran­dom process of charg­ing deci­sions, plea agree­ments, and jury rec­om­men­da­tions is just part of a death penal­ty sys­tem that has apt­ly been called Indiana’s​‘oth­er lot­tery’,” the group not­ed in its report. The seven-member…

In his new auto­bi­og­ra­phy,​“Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist,” Mike Farrell pro­vides inti­mate accounts of his life as a tele­vi­sion sit­com star and as a human rights activist. Farrell explains how his work on the tele­vi­sion pro­gram MAS*H inspired him to become more involved in pol­i­tics and human rights issues. Over the years, he has been con­sid­ered one of Hollywood’s most promi­nent activists, espe­cial­ly on issues related to…