Publications & Testimony

A recent Kansas poll found that near­ly two-thirds of respon­dents said they pre­fer a sen­tence of life in prison with­out parole in which the offend­ers would work in prison to pay resti­tu­tion to the vic­tims’ fam­i­lies as an alter­na­tive to the death penal­ty. The poll also revealed that many Kansans think cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is hand­ed out unfair­ly. Fifty-sev­en per­cent of respon­dents said they believe that some peo­ple are exe­cut­ed while oth­ers serve prison time for…

In the Shadow of Death: Restorative Justice and Death Row Families is a new book by Professors Elizabeth Beck, Sarah Britto, and Arlene Andrews that exam­ines the debil­i­tat­ing effects that a death sen­tence can have on the fam­i­lies of the offend­ers. With a for­ward by Steve Earle, the book pro­vides an in-depth analy­sis of restora­tive jus­tice, which focus­es on crime as an act against an indi­vid­ual or the com­mu­ni­ty, rather than the state. In their exam­i­na­tion of how…

An Associated Press inves­ti­ga­tion of Tennessee’s ​“Manual for Execution” found that the guide for lethal injec­tions con­tains con­flict­ing instruc­tions and mix­es new pro­ce­dures with old guide­lines for car­ry­ing out elec­tro­cu­tions. The man­u­al instructs prison offi­cials to shave the con­demned pris­on­er’s head pri­or to an exe­cu­tion, as if prepar­ing him for elec­tro­cu­tion, and orders that they have a fire extin­guish­er near­by. It also provides…

The Fairer Death: Executing Women in Ohio is a new book by Victor Streib, a pro­fes­sor at the Ohio Northern University College of Law. The book explores Ohio’s use of the death penal­ty for women and exam­ines the impli­ca­tions for women on death row through­out the coun­try. Streib care­ful­ly describes the cas­es of all four women exe­cut­ed by Ohio in its his­to­ry and those of the 11 women sen­tenced to death in the state dur­ing the mod­ern death penal­ty era (1973-present). Professor…

Professor David Gushee, Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, called for a nation­al halt to exe­cu­tions because the death penal­ty as a pub­lic pol­i­cy​“fails the most basic stan­dards of jus­tice.” Prof. Gushee, writ­ing for the Associated Baptist Press, stat­ed that the recent mora­to­ri­um in Tennessee sur­round­ing lethal injec­tion prob­lems should be extend­ed to review the entire…

The Colorado House Judiciary Committee recent­ly vot­ed to abol­ish the state’s death penal­ty, replac­ing it with a sen­tence of life-with­­out-parole, and use the mon­ey cur­rent­ly spent on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment to help solve 1,200 cold-case homi­cides in the state. The 7 – 4 vote fol­lowed four hours of tes­ti­mo­ny from mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers, state law enforce­ment offi­cials, and death penal­ty experts, includ­ing DPIC Executive Director Richard Dieter. The…

An Oklahoma man could be exe­cut­ed or spared based on which side of a grav­el road in rur­al McIntosh County a mur­der took place. Patrick Murphey, who is bor­der­­line-men­­tal­­ly retard­ed and was drunk at the time of the crime, was orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced to death for the mur­der in 2000. His tri­al attor­ney failed to notice that the pros­e­cu­tion had made a two-mile mis­take in locat­ing the site of the crime. Murphey’s sec­ond attor­ney, who spent 11 years as…

Missouri Rep. Bill Deeken (pic­tured), a Republican death penal­ty pro­po­nent, has intro­duced leg­is­la­tion that would halt exe­cu­tions in the state until 2011 and would cre­ate a cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment com­mis­sion to exam­ine the fair­ness and accu­ra­cy of Missouri’s death penal­ty. Deeken stat­ed that his moti­va­tion for the bill came after real­iz­ing that the state’s death penal­ty has not been imple­ment­ed fair­ly in all cas­es and it does not ade­quate­ly prevent wrongful…

Judiciary Committee — Colorado House of Representatives: Testimony of Richard C. Dieter (February…

For the first time in near­ly two decades, mem­bers of the Nebraska​’s uni­cam­er­al leg­is­la­ture will have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to debate a bill that would repeal the state’s death penal­ty and replace it with a sen­tence of life with­out parole and an order of resti­tu­tion. Members of the leg­is­la­ture’s Judiciary Committee unan­i­mous­ly advanced the bill, not­ing that their col­leagues in the full sen­ate should have a chance to debate the mea­sure. The…