Publications & Testimony

The Chicago Tribune Investigates the Execution of a Likely Innocent Man in​“Did this man die…for this man’s crime?” In 1989, defen­dant Carlos DeLuna was exe­cut­ed in Texas for the fatal stab­bing of Texas con­ve­nience store clerk Wanda Lopez. The three-part series by reporters Maurice Possley and Steve Mills can be found here. A news piece on ABC’s​“World News Tonight” also cov­ered this sto­ry. Watch it here. (Requires Real Player. For oth­er media versions including…

On June 28, 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court decid­ed two con­sol­i­dat­ed cas­es involv­ing the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. In both cas­es, the for­eign nation­als were arrest­ed but not informed by police offi­cers of their con­sular rights under the Convention to ask that their respec­tive con­sulates be noti­fied of their deten­tion. The Court con­clud­ed that state­ments made by for­eign nation­als do not need to be sup­pressed, even though the defen­dants were not…

Just weeks after Ohio strug­gled for more than 90 min­utes to find a suit­able vein in Joseph Clark​’s arm to admin­is­ter lethal injec­tion drugs, the state has decid­ed to imple­ment new reg­u­la­tions aimed at ensur­ing smoother pro­ce­dures dur­ing exe­cu­tions. In a report prompt­ed by prob­lems encoun­tered dur­ing Clark’s exe­cu­tion, Ohio pris­ons Director Terry Collins told Gov. Bob Taft that exe­cu­tion teams will now make every effort to locate two injection…

Below are sum­maries from two U.S. District Court deci­sions regard­ing prob­lems with lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures in Arkansas and Missouri. The court in Arkansas grant­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion for Don Davis to allow fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tions into the lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dures. In Missouri, in Michael Taylor’s case, the District judge put all exe­cu­tions in the state on hold until changes are made in the state’s exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols.Nooner v. Norris, No.

Dr. Deepak Chopra recent­ly wrote that con­tin­u­ing use of the death penal­ty in the U.S. is irra­tional because it does not deter crime, risks inno­cent lives, and iso­lates the U.S. among the major­i­ty of First World nations that have cho­sen to aban­don cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment:The U.S. has iso­lat­ed itself among First World coun­tries by allow­ing the death penal­ty — 123 coun­tries have abol­ished it com­plete­ly, or in prac­tice nev­er use it, a few per­mit­ting it under extreme…

In a 5 – 4 deci­sion that revealed a deep divi­sion among the Justices over the fair­ness of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kansas’s death penal­ty statute on June 26. In Kansas v. Marsh, the Court held that juries may be required to sen­tence a defen­dant to die when there is an equal weight of mit­i­gat­ing and aggra­vat­ing evi­dence. The rul­ing over­turns a Kansas Supreme Court deci­sion that found the prac­tice uncon­sti­tu­tion­al because it vio­lat­ed the Eighth…

The Death Penalty Information Center held its 10^th Annual Thurgood Marshall Journalism Awards at the National Press Club on Monday, June 26. This year’s award recip­i­ents were Jacqui Lofaro and Victor Teich of Justice Productions for their documentary ​“The Empty Chair,” and reporter Robert Nelson of the Phoenix New Times for his cov­er­age of death row exoneree Ray Krone. Lofaro and Teich received this year’s Award for excel­lence in the television…

Members of the New York Assembly’s Codes Committee recent­ly vot­ed 13 – 5 against a bill to rein­state the death penal­ty, a vote that revealed a grow­ing bi-par­ti­san oppo­si­tion to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Last year’s vote on the same mea­sure was 11 – 7. New York’s death penal­ty was over­turned in 2004 by the state’s high­est court. A num­ber of Assembly mem­bers have said they no longer sup­port the death penal­ty because of grow­ing evi­dence that it risks inno­cent lives and…

Did this man die…for…

A Chicago Tribune inves­ti­ga­tion set for release this week­end will reveal ground­break­ing evi­dence that Texas may have exe­cut­ed an inno­cent man in 1989. The defen­dant, Carlos DeLuna, was exe­cut­ed for the fatal stab­bing of Texas con­ve­nience store clerk Wanda Lopez in 1983. New evi­dence uncov­ered by reporters Maurice Possley and Steve Mills casts doubt on DeLuna’s guilt and points towards anoth­er man, Carlos Hernandez, who had a record of sim­i­lar crimes and…