Publications & Testimony

New York’s Capital Defender Office is preparing to close its doors in the wake of a N.Y. Court of Appeals ruling that disposed of the final appeal of a death sentence under the capital punishment law declared unconstitutional in 2004. “It is … my intention to close the office as soon as practically possible,” said Kevin M. Doyle, who has served as Executive Director of the defender office established in 1995. Doyle said there is no point in keeping the office open given the status of the death…

The American Bar Association (ABA) renewed its call for a nationwide halt to executions following a series of state studies that found serious problems in their death penalty systems. “After carefully studying the way states across the spectrum handle executions, it has become crystal clear that the process is deeply flawed. The death penalty system is rife with irregularity,” said Stephen F. Hanlon (pictured), chairman of the ABA Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project. During the…

The New Mexico Supreme Court halted a death penalty case against 2 prison inmates charged with killing a guard during a 1999 riot because the defense has received insufficient funding to proceed. “Defense counsels’ compensation is inadequate under the facts of this case, violating defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel,” the court said in a unanimous ruling. The court held that an additional $200,000 must be appropriated by the legislature before the case can move…

A recent Washington Post opinion poll found that Marylanders prefer the sentence of life in prison over the death penalty. In the October 2007 poll of 1,103 Maryland adults, respondents were asked to choose between the sentence of life in prison without parole or the death penalty for the crime of murder: 52% said they favored life without parole and 43% supported capital punishment. Among black respondents, support for life without parole was even stronger, with 65% responding that they…

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) has filed a judicial complaint against the Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Sharon Keller (pictured), the first time the group says it has ever filed a complaint against a judge. NACDL has asked the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct to review Judge Keller’s decision to turn away the last appeal of a death row inmate because the rushed filing was submitted past the court’s 5 p.m. closing time. Attorneys for…

The Spring 2007 edition of the American Bar Association’s Human Rights quarterly features a series of articles by outstanding authors about the death penalty, including a 30-year retrospective on capital punishment in the U.S. The articles contained in the publication are: A Thirty-Year Retrospective of the Death Penalty By Stephen F. Hanlon Monitoring Death Sentencing Decisions: The Challenges and Barriers to Equity By Glenn L. Pierce and Michael L. Radelet Mental Disability and Capital…

Funds for community policing programs have been significantly slashed in recent years, a development that experts link to the government’s new focus on fighting terrorism. The U.S. Department of Justice provided $7 billion in federal funds for community policing programs between 1994 and 2001, but it has awarded only $208 million for local departments this year. “Many of those funds have been shifted to homeland security, which also is very important in this day and age,” said University of…

The New York Court of Appeals ruled today (October 23, 2007) that the death sentence of the last remaining inmate on the state’s death row was unconstitutional under state law. John Taylor’s sentence will be changed to life in prison without parole. An earlier decision by the state’s high court in 2004 overturned the state’s statute because of flaws in the jury instructions. (People v. LaValle). Following hearings on the problems with capital punishment in the state, the New York legislature…

Following the release of a new study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health concerning the failure of deterrence in drug use, medical experts commented that deterrence also fails in the area of capital punishment. “It is very clear that deterrents are not effective in the area of capital punishment,” said Dr. Jonathan Groner, an associate professor of surgery at Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health who researches the deterrent effect of capital punishment. “The…

A former Tennessee Attorney General, W.J. Cody, and a U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Gilbert Merritt, both members of the American Bar Association’s Tennessee Death Penalty Assessment Team, called on policymakers to thoroughly review the state’s capital punishment laws and implement significant changes that address concerns such as wrongful convictions, meeting the needs of victims’ family members, and ensuring that the state complies with minimum standards required for fairness in capital…