Publications & Testimony

With a number of executions of inmates who have waived their appeals approaching in the U.S., Amnesty International has released a new report, “Prisoner-assisted homicide — more ‘volunteer’ executions loom.” The report addresses the fact that about 12% of executions in the U.S. since the death penalty was reinstated have been of inmates who gave up appeals that would have extended their time on death row. The report looks at some of the possible reasons for the large number of volunteers…

“Towards the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Africa: A Human Rights Perspective” is a new book by Lilian Chenwi that examines the history of capital punishment in Africa and the continent’s emerging trend away from the death penalty. In her book, Chenwi details the impact that both international human rights organizations and international treaties have had on shifting African views about capital punishment. This resource includes chapters on the history and current state of capital…

California has proposed new lethal injection procedures that attempt to satisfy the concerns raised by U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel, who found that the state’s previous practice was unconstitutional. The new protocol does not change the existing three-drug cocktail and will not require a doctor’s participation in executions. Defense attorneys for Michael Morales, whose appeal led to the state’s current moratorium on executions, said the new protocol “fails to conform to the standards…

A new Web page launched by the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty features information about four men who have been executed but who may have been innocent. The site, based on NCADP’s report “Innocent and Executed: Four Chapters in the Life and Death of America’s Death Penalty,” provides an in-depth look at the strong post-execution innocence claims that have surfaced in the cases of Cameron Todd Willingham, Carlos DeLuna, and Ruben Cantu, all of Texas, and Larry Griffin of…

Byron Halsey, who narrowly escaped a death sentence in New Jersey in 1988, had his conviction vacated after DNA tests pointed to another man as the assailant. Halsey’s defense attorneys from the New York-based Innocence Project and the Union County District Attorney’s Office had asked a state judge to grant a joint motion to vacate Halsey’s conviction for the sexual assault and murder of two young children. The motion states that DNA testing on several key pieces of evidence used to convict…

Acclaimed author John Grisham recently told The Kansas City Star that the death penalty should be “abolished forever” in the United States. “I think the system is so badly flawed that all executions should be stopped… . Let’s start with the basic concept of a fair trial. We are so far away from that in every state in this country,” said Grisham, an attorney whose views on capital punishment started to shift when he wrote “The Chamber,” a novel that deals with an execution. Grisham’s most recent…

Curtis Edward McCarty, who had been sentenced to die three times and has spent 21 years on Oklahoma’s death row for a crime he did not commit, has been released after District Court Judge Twyla Mason Gray ordered that the charges against him be dismissed. Gray ruled that the case against McCarty was tainted by the questionable testimony of former police chemist Joyce Gilchrist, who gave improper expert testimony about semen and hair evidence during McCarty’s trial. Oklahoma County District…

The New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on May 10, 2007, on legislation that would replace the state’s death penalty with a sentence of life without parole. If passed, New Jersey would become the first state since capital punishment was reinstated to abolish the death penalty legislatively. The bill stems from a January report issued by a special study commission appointed by the New Jersey legislature. The commission’s report overwhelmingly recommended abolition of the…

In “Dead Wrong: Violence, Vengeance, and the Victims of Capital Punishment,” author Richard Stack uses cases to examine three of the main causes of wrongful convictions — mistaken eyewitness testimony, official misconduct, and incompetent counsel. Stack, a professor at American University’s School of Communication, based the book on three years of research conducted with the assistance of students enrolled in his public communication classes. He said that he wrote the book to “put a human face”…