Publications & Testimony

The annu­al num­ber of death sen­tences in Texas has declined from 40 in fis­cal year 1996 to 14 in 2006, a drop of 65%, accord­ing to the State Office of Court Administration. Last year there were 15 new death sen­tences. This decrease is in line with the nation­al decline in death sen­tences, which dropped from about 300 per year in the 1990s to 125 in 2005. The drop in Texas was par­tic­u­lar­ly marked in Harris County (Houston), which pro­duced the most death sen­tences of any county in…

Mark Urban, chair­man of the Governor’s Advocacy Council for Persons with Disabilities, has request­ed that North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley ful­ly con­sid­er death row inmate Guy LeGrande’s request for clemen­cy. LeGrande (pic­tured), who is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on December 1, has been diag­nosed as psychotic…

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…

…

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…