Publications & Testimony
Items: 5171 — 5180
May 02, 2006
Supreme Court Unanimously Rules Death Row Inmate Deprived of a Fair Trial
The U.S. Supreme Court, with Justice Samuel Alito writing his first opinion, unanimously ruled on May 1 that South Carolina had deprived Bobbie Lee Holmes of a fair trial when it prevented him from putting on evidence contradictory to the state’s case and that pointed to another possible suspect. South Carolina’s rule was that if the state had put on strong forensic evidence of the defendant’s guilt, the defendant could be prohibited from raising an…
Read MoreApr 28, 2006
BOOKS: Stories about Executions
“A Meal to Die For” is a short story by Professor Robert Johnson examining capital punishment through the eyes of a man approaching his execution. The story is part of The Crying Wall and Other Prison Stories, a larger collection of short stories by a variety of authors. In“A Meal to Die For,” Johnson weaves the death row prisoner’s last meal with the gradual process of lethal injection, resulting in a painful death. Robert Johnson is…
Read MoreApr 28, 2006
New Research Examines Racial Stereotypes and the Death Penalty
“Looking Deathworthy: Perceived Stereotypicality of Black Defendants Predicts Capital-Sentencing Outcomes” contains new research on race conducted by professors from Stanford, UCLA, Yale and Cornell, led by Prof. Jennifer Eberhardt. The article, to be published in the May 2006 edition of Psychological Science, examines whether the likelihood of being sentenced to death is influenced by the degree to which…
Read MoreApr 28, 2006
LETHAL INJECTIONS: Hearings in California and Missouri Delayed by Federal Courts
Two of the leading cases challenging the lethal injection process as a civil rights violation were significantly delayed to allow the parties more time to gather information. In California, the federal District Court overseeing the case of Michael Morales postponed the scheduled May 2 hearing until September 19, 2006. In Missouri, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit granted a 60-day extension for discovery and a hearing in the case of Michael Taylor.
Read MoreApr 27, 2006
Texas Death Row Inmate To Be Forcibly Medicated For Execution
On April 11, Texas Judge Wayne Salvant ruled that death row inmate Steven Kenneth Staley could be physically forced to take anti-psychotic medication that could render him competent enough to be executed. The decision came nearly two months after the judge stopped Staley’s scheduled execution following testimony from two doctors who stated that Staley suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and is too mentally ill to be executed. The law requires that Staley be…
Read MoreApr 27, 2006
Human Rights Watch Report on Lethal Injection
A new report issued by Human Rights Watch notes that most U.S. states use execution methods that needlessly risk excruciating pain for inmates subjected to lethal injections. The report examines the history of lethal injections and the widespread use of protocols that were created three decades ago with no scientific research.Excerpts from the report: Although supporters of lethal injection believe the prisoner dies painlessly, there is mounting…
Read MoreApr 27, 2006
DETERRENCE: Nevada Executions – 11 out 12 Preferred Execution over Appeals
Daryl Mack, who repeatedly noted that he would rather be executed than spend the next 20 years of his life on death row pursuing legal appeals, was executed Wednesday for a 1988 murder in Reno. Mack was convicted in 2002. He was the 12th person executed in Nevada since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977, and the 11th to waive remaining appeals at the time of execution. He was the first black man to be executed in the Nevada since executions resumed in…
Read MoreApr 26, 2006
Harvard Conference Explores Race and the Death Penalty
A May 2006 conference held at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School examined new research, legal defense, and public response to the issue of race and the death penalty. The conference, “From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State: A National Conference on Race and the Death Penalty,” featured a number of national academic and legal…
Read MoreApr 26, 2006
Juries Choosing Death Penalty Less Often in Federal Cases
The percentage of federal death penalty cases resulting in death sentences has declined from the 1990s to the present. Since 1991, juries chose a death sentence in 51 cases compared with 93 cases that ended with a sentence of life in prison, according to Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel, a rate of 35% for death sentences. Since 2000, juries have returned 29 death sentences and 69 life sentences, a rate…
Read MoreApr 25, 2006
United Methodist Church Marks 50th Anniversary of Stance Against Death Penalty
Marking the 50th anniversary of the United Methodist Church’s public call for an end to the death penalty, the church’s General Board of Church and Society recently issued a statement echoing the sentiments of the church’s original call for abolition and urging all United Methodists“to practice transformative love, to comfort the victims of crime, to humanize those convicted of crime, and to advocate for an end to the death penalty in our criminal justice…
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