Publications & Testimony

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…

“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…

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…

In a recent New York Times op-ed, John Farmer, senior coun­sel to the 9/​11 com­mis­sion and a for­mer New Jersery attor­ney gen­er­al, states that seek­ing the death penal­ty for Zacarias Moussaoui detracts from U.S. efforts to seek jus­tice against senior Al Qaeda offi­cials who plot­ted and car­ried out the 9/​11 attacks. Farmer claims Moussauoi, who was in jail as ter­ror­ists plot­ted and car­ried out the events of 9/​11, was not the​“20^th hijack­er” and is a​“poor stand in” for more…

The recent ​“Faces of Wrongful Conviction” con­fer­ence at UCLA fea­tured a wide vari­ety of speak­ers, includ­ing California’s Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, for­mer spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor and fed­er­al judge Kenneth Starr, and for­mer Bexar County (TX) District Attorney Sam Milsap. The con­fer­ence was orga­nized to exam­ine mis­takes in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem and to explore reforms, par­tic­u­lar­ly in California. A state Senate com­mis­sion is prepar­ing a study of…

U.S. District Court Judge Malcolm Howard has ordered North Carolina prison offi­cials to pro­vide med­ical­ly trained per­son­nel to ensure that death row inmate Willie Brown, Jr. is uncon­scious dur­ing his exe­cu­tion, cur­rent­ly sched­uled for April 21. Prison offi­cials have until noon on April 12 to present their plan for com­ply­ing with the order.​“Serious ques­tions have been raised by the evi­dence con­cern­ing the effect of the cur­rent exe­cu­tion pro­to­col. If the alleged…

Alice Hoagland’s son, Mark Bingham (pic­tured), was killed on September 11 as he joined with fel­low United Airlines pas­sen­gers to ground a plane that may have been head­ed toward the White House. Hoagland is urg­ing a life sen­tence for Zacarias Moussaoui, who faces the death penal­ty for his role in the ter­ror­ist events of that day. In an inter­view with The Advocate, Hoagland not­ed that spar­ing Moussaoui’s life would hon­or​“a rev­er­ence for all life” and that it would prevent…

The upcom­ing sixth annu­al Forensic Science and Law Conference, Justice for All, will fea­ture more than 40 nation­al experts dis­cussing caus­es of and solu­tions to wrong­ful con­vic­tions. Former FBI Director William Sessions, Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, acclaimed foren­sic sci­en­tist Henry Lee, and DNA exonerees Kirk Bloodsworth and Thomas Doswell are among those who will offer pre­sen­ta­tions dur­ing the April 20 – 22 event at Duquesne…

A bill to expand South Carolina’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statute so that those who are con­vict­ed a sec­ond time of rap­ing chil­dren under 11 are eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty has drawn crit­i­cism from those who wor­ry the bill may result in unin­tend­ed con­se­quences. Fears that the leg­is­la­tion will lead to fam­i­ly mem­bers refus­ing to come for­ward regard­ing intra-fam­i­­ly offens­es and that it may also result in more rape vic­tims being killed are among the chief concerns…

LETHAL INJECTIONS: News & Developments Mandatory Justice: The Death Penalty Revisited Constitution Project Issues Updated Capital Punishment Reform Recommendations The Constitution Project’s blue-rib­bon Death Penalty Initiative has released an updat­ed set of guid­ing prin­ci­ples for death penal­ty reform.​“Mandatory Justice: The Death Penalty Revisited” iden­ti­fies spe­cif­ic improvements to…