Publications & Testimony
Items: 5021 — 5030
Nov 01, 2006
NEW VOICES: Ohio Supreme Court Justice Says Mentally Ill Should be Exempt from Death Penalty
Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton of the Ohio Supreme Court called upon the legislature to exempt defendants with serious mental illness from the death penalty. Judge Stratton concurred in the affirmance of the death sentence for Donald Ketterer. She noted that she was not questioning Ketterer’s guilt, nor whether he was competent to stand trial, nor even his possible mental retardation, all of which are covered by other aspects of the law. Rather the judge said she was…
Read MoreOct 31, 2006
Number of Police Officers Killed Declines in Same Period as Decline in Use of Death Penalty
According to a new report from the FBI, the number of police officers killed in the line of duty declined in 2005 compared with 2004, and was 22% less than the number killed in 2001. Fifty-five law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in 2005, 57 in 2004, and 70 in 2001. The South had the largest number of police officers killed, almost three times more than any of the other regions in the country. Twenty-eight officers were killed in the South, 10 in the Midwest, 10 in…
Read MoreOct 31, 2006
NEW RESOURCES: Papers from “The Faces of Wrongful Conviction” Symposium
The Fall 2006 edition of the Golden Gate University Law Review contains papers from the recent Symposium entitled “The Faces of Wrongful Conviction” that was held at UCLA in April 2006. The journal includes articles by Simon Cole on fingerprint evidence, by Alexandra Natapoff on the use of snitches, by Craig Haney on expanding beyond innocence when examining injustices in capital cases, and by Thomas Sullivan on the recording of custodial interviews.(37 Golden…
Read MoreOct 30, 2006
Texas Newspaper Studies State’s Death Penalty Appeals Process
The Austin American-Statesman conducted an extensive study of the quality of representation that death row inmates receive in Texas. The study concluded…
Read MoreOct 26, 2006
National Conference to Focus on Death Penalty Issues
The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty will hold its national conference at the Fair Lakes Hyatt Hotel in Fairfax, Virginia, October 26 – 29, 2006. The NCADP consists of a wide spectrum of groups and individuals opposed to the death penalty. Among the speakers at this year’s event are Theodore Shaw, President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Hugo A. Bedau, author and Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Tufts University, and numerous individuals…
Read MoreOct 26, 2006
BOOKS: The Dreams of Ada
“The Dreams of Ada” by Robert Mayer tells a story strikingly similar to that recounted by John Grisham in “The Innocent Man.” Each book involves the murder of a young woman from Ada, Oklahoma in the early 1980s. In both cases, there are two defendants whose convictions rely on little probative evidence but involve“confessions” that emerged from a dream. Both prosecutions were led by Bill Peterson and both involved the same jail-house informant. The…
Read MoreOct 23, 2006
NEW VOICES: Federal Appeals Court Judge of the Fifth Circuit Expresses Legal and Moral Problems with the Death Penalty
Judge Carolyn Dineen King of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit was the main speaker at the“Red Mass” on October 4 at the Catholic cathedral in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Red Mass is an annual liturgy held for members of the legal profession near the beginning of the judicial term. Its traditions extend back to 13th century Europe. Judge King spoke about the death penalty, both from her perspective as a judge and as a Catholic. In both areas, she raised strong…
Read MoreOct 20, 2006
NEW RESOURCES: “When the Federal Death Penalty is ‘Cruel and Unusual”
A recent law review article by Prof. Michael Mannheimer of the Salmon P. Chase College of Law argues that the federal penalty may violate the Eighth Amendment’s proscription against cruel and unusual punishments when it is used in states that do not have the death penalty. Prof. Mannheimer explores the strain of the Eighth Amendment’s history that is specifically concerned with limiting the federal government’s power to interfere with the norms of individual…
Read MoreOct 19, 2006
Pennsylvania Man Freed From Death Row
Dennis Counterman was freed from a Pennsylvania courtroom on October 18, 2006 after serving many years on the state’s death row. Counterman had been convicted and sentenced to death in 1990 for allegedly setting a fire in his own house that resulted in the death of his three children. That conviction was overturned in 2001 because prosecutors had withheld evidence from the defense indicating that the oldest child had a history of fire-setting. At…
Read MoreOct 19, 2006
Death Row to Freedom
The Morning CallBy Debbie GarlickiOctober 19, 2006 The plea: Entered an Alford plea to three counts of third-degree…
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