Publications & Testimony

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 of…

Marking the 50^th 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 sys­tem.” The state­ment comes five…

Amnesty International’s most recent death penal­ty report, ​“The Death Penalty Worldwide: Developments in 2005,” revealed a sub­stan­tial drop in record­ed exe­cu­tions around the world, as well as a grow­ing num­ber of nations that have aban­doned the death penal­ty. According to the report, four nations account­ed for 94% of the 2,148 record­ed exe­cu­tions car­ried out around the world in 2005, a total that is sig­nif­i­cant­ly less than the 3,797 exe­cu­tions record­ed in 2004 (how­ev­er, in many…

A new report issued by Human Rights Watch today notes that most U.S. states use exe­cu­tion meth­ods that need­less­ly risk excru­ci­at­ing pain for inmates sub­ject­ed to lethal injec­tions. The report, ​“So Long as They Die: Lethal Injections in the United States,” exam­ines the his­to­ry of lethal injec­tions and the wide­spread use of pro­to­cols that were cre­at­ed three decades ago with no sci­en­tif­ic research. ​“The U.S. takes more care killing dogs than peo­ple. Just because a pris­on­er may have…

The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, a blue-rib­bon pan­el estab­lished by the state leg­is­la­ture to study and review the death penal­ty and relat­ed mat­ters in California, has pro­posed sig­nif­i­cant changes in the use of eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion in California courts. The com­mis­sion called on leg­is­la­tors to pass a bill requir­ing the attor­ney gen­er­al’s office to con­vene a task force to devel­op guide­lines for new pro­ce­dures and train­ings in eyewitness identification.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagel-Arroyo (pic­tured) ordered the com­mu­ta­tion of all death sen­tences to life in prison, an order that will spare the lives of the 1,205 peo­ple on death row. As her nation marked Easter Sunday, she issued the clemen­cies: ​“I wish to announce that we are chang­ing our pol­i­cy on those who have been imposed the death penal­ty. We are reduc­ing their penal­ty to life impris­on­ment. Anyone who falls and makes mis­takes has a chance to stand up and cor­rect the wrong he…

In a let­ter issued pri­or to Easter, the Catholic Bishops in Missouri called for an end to exe­cu­tions in the U.S. and urged parish­ioners to ​“build a cul­ture of life.” The let­ter not­ed that vio­lence ​“is not a solu­tion to soci­ety’s prob­lems,” and it sum­ma­rized church teach­ings regard­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and high­light­ed a cam­paign by U.S. Catholic Bishops to end the use of the death penal­ty. “(Christ) was unjust­ly sen­tenced to death and exe­cut­ed on a cross, the cru­elest form of capital…

“Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology” offers a new resource from the President’s DNA Initiative. The Web site, www​.dna​.gov, includes resources on DNA test­ing, train­ings, and fund­ing, and a his­to­ry of foren­sic use of DNA. In one sec­tion, ​“Exonerated by Science,” the site pro­vides overviews of cas­es in which DNA has played a sig­nif­i­cant role in free­ing defen­dants who have been wrong­ly con­vict­ed, includ­ing some who were exon­er­at­ed from death row. The pro­gram’s goal is to ensure that…

The wrong­ful con­vic­tion of Eddie Joe Lloyd (pic­tured), a men­tal­ly ill man who was exon­er­at­ed in 2002 after serv­ing 17 years in prison for a rape and mur­der he did not com­mit, has prompt­ed Detroit to join a grow­ing list of juris­dic­tions that now require video­taped inter­ro­ga­tions of sus­pects. A decade ago, only Minnesota and Alaska required police to video­tape inter­ro­ga­tions, but today, at least 450 police depart­ments across the coun­try have imple­ment­ed the prac­tice in an effort to prevent…