Publications & Testimony

The Justice Project, in conjunction with The Justice Project Education Fund, has issued two comprehensive policy reviews designed to facilitate communication among local law enforcement agencies, policymakers, practitioners, and others who are concerned about the issues of eyewitness identification and the electronic recording of custodial interrogations. The reviews examine each of these issues and identify pitfalls and “best practices” with the latest research behind them. The reviews also…

“Sacco and Vanzetti” is an 80-minute-long documentary that tells the story of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immigrants who were accused of a murder in 1920, and executed in Boston in 1927 after a controversial trial. It is the first major documentary film about this landmark story, which came to symbolize the bias against immigrants by some in America. At the time of their execution, millions of people in the U.S. and around the world protested on their behalf, and now…

Jim Davidsaver, a 20-year veteran with the Lincoln Police Department in Nebraska, recently wrote a column outlining his support for legislation that would have repealed the state’s death penalty. Davidsaver said he supported the measure, which failed to pass into law, because the death penalty does not deter crime and is too expensive. He noted that in his years of service with the police force he witnessed many horrific crime scenes, but none of the accused murderers was ever deterred by the…

Alabama is the only state that does not provide attorneys for indigent death row inmates throughout their state appeal. Lawyers representing some of those on death row in the state will soon ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case challenging this practice. The attorneys will ask the Court to determine whether people facing execution have a constitutional right to an attorney as part of their right of meaningful access to the courts. Alabama maintains that it should be able to go it alone in…

Prior to their dismissals, three federal prosecutors whose firings are under scrutiny by Congress were engaged in a struggle with the Justice Department over its expanded pursuit of the federal death penalty. Paul Charlton of Arizona, Margaret Chiara of Michigan, and Kevin Ryan of California were all criticized by Justice officials for failing to seek death sentences as part of a broader use of the federal death penalty begun by former Attorney General John Ashcroft and continued by Alberto…

After decades of maintaining a position that the government should have the legal right to impose capital punishment, the Chicago Tribune is now calling for abolition of the death penalty. Noting concerns about innocence, the arbitrary nature of the punishment, and the public’s shift away from the death penalty, the Tribune announced on March 25 that, “The evidence of mistakes, the evidence of arbitrary decisions, the sobering knowledge that government can’t provide certainty that the innocent…

The most recent volume of Criminology & Public Policy examines the topic of race and policing. Contributors to this special volume offer timely insights in this controversial area, with most agreeing that more can be done to address the long-standing tension between street officers and communities of color. The articles featured in the journal are “The Importance of Research on Race and Policing: Making Race Salient to Individuals and Institutions Within Criminal Justice” by David A. Harris…

Because of the high costs of pursuing death penalty cases, Georgia’s public defender system has run out of funds. Most of state’s 72 capital cases have been brought to a standstill. The judge in one recent high-profile case has put off jury selection until September 10 because of the funding crisis. The high-profile case involves Brian Nichols, who has been charged with the 2005 courthouse shooting that left a judge, and three other victims dead. Because the death penalty is being sought for…

The latest edition of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s “Death Row, USA” reports that the number of people on death row in the United States rose slightly to 3,350 as of January 1, 2007, an increase of 6 inmates from October 1, 2006, but a decline of 23 inmates from a year ago. The slight increase appears to be partly the result of the relatively few executions in the last quarter of 2006. California (660), Florida (397), and Texas (393) continued to have the largest death row populations.

A measure to repeal Nebraska’s death penalty and replace it with a sentence of life without parole fell one vote short of moving to the second of three stages in consideration by the unicameral legislature. It was the first time the full legislature had debated the death penalty in nearly two decades. The measure’s defeat followed two days of debate about capital punishment, including whether decisions to impose the death penalty reflect social, economic or racial bias. In addition, some…