Publications & Testimony

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…

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen has issued an exec­u­tive order estab­lish­ing a 90-day halt to exe­cu­tions in the state due to con­cerns that there aren’t enough instruc­tions pro­vid­ed dur­ing the exe­cu­tion process. The mora­to­ri­um will halt four exe­cu­tions sched­uled in Tennessee dur­ing the next three months. In an offi­cial state­ment, Governor Bredesen said:​“I think all of you know that I con­sid­er the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the state to car­ry out the death penalty among…

Willie Williams has been freed from a Georgia prison after spend­ing half of his life, 22 years, behind bars for a crime he did not com­mit.​“I nev­er gave up,” Williams said fol­low­ing his release, which came just 5 days after the Georgia Innocence Project dis­cov­ered Williams’ DNA did not match a swab tak­en from the woman he was con­vict­ed of rap­ing in 1985. After learn­ing about the DNA evi­dence exclud­ing Williams, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard…

After spend­ing 15 years in a New York prison for mur­der, Roy Brown has been exon­er­at­ed through DNA evi­dence and is free. Brown is the eighth per­son in New York to be exon­er­at­ed due to DNA evi­dence in the past 13 months, more than in any oth­er state dur­ing the same peri­od. While in prison, Brown con­duct­ed his own inves­ti­ga­tion of his wrong­ful con­vic­tion and found doc­u­ments incrim­i­nat­ing anoth­er man in the mur­der of Sabina Kulakowski. The doc­u­ments pointed to…

The Death Penalty in the United States: Strategies for Change (visu­als) by Richard C. Dieter at the World Congress on the Death Penalty (February…