Publications & Testimony

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on January 5 to hear anoth­er death penal­ty case from Texas, this one involv­ing a defen­dant who may be men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent. In 1986, the Supreme Court held that it is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al to exe­cute an inmate who is present­ly insane. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5^th Circuit ruled that Scott Panetti, who was allowed to defend him­self in his Texas tri­al despite his schiz­o­phre­nia and 14 stints in men­tal hos­pi­tals, and who says the devil…

An edi­to­r­i­al pub­lished by the Lexington Herald-Leader not­ed that sup­port for Kentucky’s death penal­ty has declined since the state resumed exe­cu­tions a decade ago. The paper stat­ed that 68% of state res­i­dents ques­tioned in a recent poll pre­ferred a long prison sen­tence over exe­cu­tion for those con­vict­ed of mur­der. The Herald-Leader con­clud­ed that Kentuckians’ grow­ing unease about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is reflec­tive of a broad­er nation­al trend away from the death…

Professor Matthew Robinson of Applachian State University has writ­ten a new book enti­tled Death Nation: The Experts Explain American Capital Punishment. This book pro­vides a sol­id yet brief back­ground on the major issues per­tain­ing to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the United States. It cov­ers top­ics such as the his­to­ry of the death penal­ty in America, American death penal­ty law, jus­ti­fi­ca­tions for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, as well as alleged prob­lems with its prac­tice. The…

The report from the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission that called for an end to the state’s death penal­ty was pre­pared by a group of indi­vid­u­als rep­re­sent­ing a wide vari­ety of view­points and expe­ri­ence. The mem­bers of the Commission were:Governor Jon S.

EXECUTION REPRIEVES Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio grant­ed tem­po­rary reprieves to three inmates sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in the next 5 weeks in order to allow more time to con­sid­er whether clemen­cy should be grant­ed: Kenneth Biros, James Filiaggi, and Christopher Newton. (Jan. 19, 2007). See…

After exten­sive pub­lic hear­ings, the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission issued a report on January 2 call­ing for an end to the state’s death penal­ty and replac­ing it with a sen­tence of life with­out parole. The 13-mem­ber Commission was appoint­ed by the state leg­is­la­ture, which also placed a mora­to­ri­um on all exe­cu­tions until a report was pre­pared. The report cit­ed the risks of exe­cut­ing the inno­cent, the high costs of the death penal­ty, and soci­ety’s…

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Texas Court Rejects Presidential Order in…

In Kansas v. Marsh (2006), the Supreme Court held in a vote of 5 to 4 that a Kansas statute requir­ing that a death sen­tence be imposed when a jury finds that the aggra­vat­ing and mit­i­gat­ing cir­cum­stances in a case have equal weight was con­sti­tu­tion­al. Justice Souter, dis­agree­ing with the Court’s deci­sion, authored the dissenting…

Vatican Says Death Penalty Is​“Affront to…