Publications & Testimony

Kenneth Tinsley pleaded guilty on April 11 to the 1982 rape and capital murder of a Culpeper woman — a crime for which another man, Earl Washington Jr., spent nearly a decade on death row and was nearly executed. Tinsley admitted to the rape of Rebecca Lynn Williams, a 19-year-old mother of 3, and conceded that DNA and other evidence could have proved his guilt of her murder. He was sentenced to 2 consecutive life terms. Earl Washington, who is mentally retarded, had originally been convicted…

Challenges to the constitutionality of North Carolina’s lethal injection procedures have put executions on hold, and it appears they will remain that way for the foreseeable future. Though some lawmakers are pushing for a legislative “fix” to questions raised about the procedures, Governor Mike Easley and Democratic lawmakers — who control the legislature — have no plans to end the execution standstill prior to clear court action. “The legislature isn’t going to be able to move in any…

Amnesty International has released a new report entitled “Justice Delayed and Justice Denied? Trials under the Military Commissions Act.” This report examines whether proceedings under the revised U.S. Military Commissions Act will comply with international standards, especially when the death penalty is sought. In particular, it explores the rights of detainees under international human rights law, the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Constitution. (Amnesty International, “Justice Delayed and…

The Sentinel newspaper of Pennsylvania is the latest paper to editorially conclude that the death penalty should be abolished. Shortly after it published an investigative piece outlining the ineffectiveness of Pennsylvania’s death penalty, the newspaper editorialized that the state’s capital punishment laws are “useless” and that the “pendulum is swinging away from Pennsylvania’s position on a law it cannot even execute.” The Central Pennsylvania-based newspaper noted that capital punishment…

If James Lee Clark is executed in Texas on April 11, he will be the 12^th Texas inmate executed out of 13 executions nationwide in 2007. According to some psychological tests, Clark has an IQ of 68 or lower, which is one of the common criteria for mental retardation. Clark’s defense team has asked the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Texas Governor Rick Perry to halt the execution because of the likelihood that Clark suffers from mental retardation. Clark is on death row for the 1993…

From 1999 to 2004, Dr. Johnny Glenn was the only forensic pathologist performing autopsies in the poorest part of Alabama. He was assisted only by lab technicians as he performed hundreds of autopsies annually, including at least one death penalty case. After his abrupt departure, it was discovered that Glenn routinely put aside his notes and often failed to finish final reports or diagrams that are crucial to death investigations. Two of his former colleagues say that Glenn was increasingly…

“Justice Talking” on National Public Radio recently addressed current death penalty issues, including an examination of the controversy surrounding lethal injections. The program, which is available online, featured an overview of the U.S. death penalty by professor John Blume, founder and director of the Cornell Death Penalty Project at Cornell University, and an interview with Deborah Denno, a professor of law at Fordham University who is one of the nation’s leading scholars on the death…

Pennsylvania has convened a commission of judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement officers and victims’ advocates to study the causes of wrongful convictions and make recommendations for preventing them in the state. Forensic errors, mistaken eyewitness identifications and false confessions have led to wrongful convictions around the nation, including 9 people from Pennsylvania who have been exonerated by DNA evidence. The commission of 40 members was sponsored by Pennsylvania…

In 2006, U.S. District Judge Malcolm J. Howard allowed two men to be executed by lethal injection after prison officials indicated that a physician and a nurse at the execution would monitor a type of brain-wave machine to ensure that the inmates were unconscious and not in pain when the paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs were injected. However, a deposition given in November 2006 by Central Prison warden Marvin Polk (pictured) is now raising questions about whether the judge was misled. In…

The Global Debate on the Death Penalty by Sandra Babcock, Human Rights, American Bar Association, Spring 2007 • Vol. 34, No. 2 Richard Cohen, “Let Saddam Live.” Washington Post, December 18, 2003 Richard Dieter, “International Influence on the Death Penalty in the U.S.” Foreign Service Journal, October 2003. Shapiro, Bruce, “Dead Reckoning” The Nation, August 6, 2001. Dorf, Michael, “When U.S. states execute citizens of other countries,: The Case of Gerardo Valdez” Findlaw.com (Legal…