Publications & Testimony

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”…

North Carolina’s legislature recently took an important step toward becoming the nation’s second state to pass a Racial Justice Act, legislation that gives defendants the opportunity to challenge the death penalty based on studies showing racial bias. The bill was quickly approved by members of the House Judiciary II Committee and will now go before the full House for consideration. The legislation is similar to legislation enacted in Kentucky in 1998 and, according to the NAACP, it targets the…

U.S. District Judge S. James Otero recently halted the penalty phase of a federal capital case in Los Angeles and told prosecutors that he believes the U.S. Justice Department should reconsider its decision to seek the death penalty for Petro “Peter” Krylov. Krylov is facing the death penalty for his role in a kidnapping and murder plot. Otero, the second federal judge this year to urge federal prosecutors and the Justice Department to rethink their decision to seek a death sentence, told…

The Tennessee House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill that would establish a commission to thoroughly review the state’s death penalty system and provide lawmakers with reform recommendations that address any problems identified by members of the commission. The commission would consist of representatives appointed by Governor Phil Bredesen (pictured), the Senate, and the House, and would include prosecutors, defense attorneys, mental health advocates, and victims advocates. A…

Amnesty International reported that executions worldwide fell by more than 25% last year, down from 2,148 in 2005 to 1,591 in 2006. Of all known executions that took place in 2006, 91% were carried out in six countries, China (1,010), Iran (177), Pakistan (82), Iraq (65), Sudan (65), and the United States (53). Amnesty notes that executions in China are treated as state secrets, and there may have been as many as 8,000 executions. Last year, the Philippines became the 99^th nation to abolish…

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen (pictured) lifted the moratorium on executions that he imposed in February after accepting revised death penalty protocols submitted by the Tennessee Department of Corrections just days before the next execution. Though the new procedures include more detailed guidelines for carrying out lethal injections, the state will continue to use a controversial three-drug “cocktail” and exclude doctors from participating, meaures that some say risk severe and unnecessary…