Publications & Testimony

U.S. District Judge Benson E. Legg, who has been over­see­ing the chal­lenge to Maryland​’s lethal injec­tion process filed by death row inmate Vernon Evans, has stat­ed that he might direct state cor­rec­tions offi­cials to​“test the recruit­ment waters” in search of doc­tors or high­ly trained nurs­es to par­tic­i­pate in state exe­cu­tions before he rules on whether to require the med­ical pro­fes­sion­als’ involve­ment. The judge has held exten­sive hear­ings over nine days…

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rebuffed President Bush​’s order that Texas courts review the cas­es of Mexican for­eign nation­als who were sen­tenced to death with­out the ben­e­fit of their rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Writing for the court, Judge Michael Keasler, stat­ed:​“We hold that the President has exceed­ed his con­sti­tu­tion­al author­i­ty by intrud­ing into the inde­pen­dent pow­ers of the judi­cia­ry.” Judge Sharon Keller…

Prosecutors in Utah have stat­ed that the sen­tenc­ing option of life with­out parole has been very help­ful in giv­ing jurors and fam­i­ly mem­bers of vic­tims a viable alter­na­tive to the death penal­ty. Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom not­ed that life with­out parole is often a bet­ter option to present to jurors:​“It’s a tool for juries as well as pros­e­cu­tors and defense attor­neys, too,” Yocom said.​“It’s an alter­na­tive to avoid ask­ing a jury of 12 peo­ple to make…

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld California’s death penal­ty law in a 5 – 4 deci­sion on Nov. 13 in Ayers v. Belmontes. The major­i­ty held that the state’s law allowed the jury to con­sid­er all appro­pri­ate mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence. The deci­sion reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9^th Circuit, which had over­turned Belmontes death sen­tence. The dis­sent, con­sist­ing of Justices Stephens, Breyer, Ginsburg and Souter, how­ev­er, dis­agreed, con­tend­ing that the jury…

Federal District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel is expect­ed to rule soon on a chal­lenge to the lethal injec­tion process in California, the state with the largest death row in the coun­try. Extensive hear­ings with nation­al experts were con­duct­ed ear­li­er in the year and some tes­ti­mo­ny raised seri­ous con­cerns about the super­vi­sion and reli­a­bil­i­ty of the exe­cu­tion process. Final respons­es to Judge Fogel’s sup­ple­men­tary ques­tions after the close of the hear­ings were due on…

The for­mer war­den of the Virginia prison that hous­es the state’s death row inmates has called for clemen­cy for a man about to be exe­cut­ed on November 9. Page True was war­den of the Sussex I State Prison and knew death row inmate John Schmitt for over 4 years.​“The crime was just ter­ri­ble,” True said,​“but there’s a lot worse inmates that I’ve dealt with in my 36 years in prison systems than…

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DPIC’s Lethal Injection Page Federal Judge Carolyn Dineen King Speaks on the Death Penalty at Red Mass October 4, 2006 marked the annu­al litur­gy held for mem­bers of the legal pro­fes­sion called the Red Mass. This year’s keynote speak­er in Corpus Christi, Texas, was Judge Carolyn Dineen King of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She chose to speak about the death penal­ty from both a legal and moral point of view, while…

Bonita Spikes’ hus­band was mur­dered 12 years ago. She now works to end the death penal­ty in Maryland. She recent­ly wrote about her per­spec­tive on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the Baltimore Sun. She…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld the con­vic­tion and death sen­tence of a death row inmate on a tie vote (7 – 7), despite the fact that the defen­dant was rep­re­sent­ed by an attor­ney who did not even learn his clien­t’s true name. The defense lawyer mis­led a review­ing court about his expe­ri­ence in cap­i­tal cas­es and has been indict­ed for per­jury. The defen­dant, who was tried in Kentucky as James Slaughter but whose real name is Jeffrey Leonard, is…