Publications & Testimony

Former Union County pros­e­cu­tor Scott Brewer, who is already under inves­ti­ga­tion for alleged­ly obstruct­ing jus­tice in the 1996 death penal­ty tri­al of John Gregory Hoffman, has been accused of with­hold­ing impor­tant evi­dence in a sec­ond cap­i­tal tri­al. Attorneys rep­re­sent­ing Darrell Strickland have asked the North Carolina State Bar to dis­ci­pline Brewer for improp­er­ly with­hold­ing three state­ments made by the vic­tims’ wife, Gail Brown, the only eye­wit­ness to the…

Judicature Journal Examines Impact of Death Penalty on…

During a recent pre­sen­ta­tion at Valparaiso University, Sister Helen Prejean (pic­tured) engaged in a dis­cus­sion with the school’s pas­tor, Rev. Joseph Cunningham. Responding to a remark that Prejean had made about defense attor­neys only need­ing to con­vince one juror to vote against the death penal­ty, Cunningham told Prejean that he had been fore­man of a jury that sen­tenced a man to death in 1995. He remarked that he is still deal­ing with the emo­tion­al toll of that experience,…

A new book by Michael Meltsner, The Making of a Civil Rights Lawyer, pro­vides a per­son­al his­to­ry of the civ­il rights move­ment from the per­spec­tive of an attor­ney com­mit­ted to social change. Meltsner’s writ­ings bring to life a sem­i­nal peri­od of legal reform in U.S. his­to­ry. The book dis­cuss­es famous cas­es and the turn­ing points in the civ­il rights and death penal­ty move­ments. Stephen Bright of the Southern Center for Human Rights notes,​“Michael Meltsner has…

The American Bar Association’s Criminial Justice Section has released a new report on pre­vent­ing wrong­ful con­vic­tions. The report, Achieving Justice: Freeing the Innocent, Convicting the Guilty, includes com­men­tary and res­o­lu­tions that address­es top­ics such as false con­fes­sions, eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­ce­dures, use of foren­sic evi­dence, jail­house infor­mants, and com­pen­sa­tion for the wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed. The report is the result of a three-year…

The Capital Case Data Project of the American Judicature Society announced their count of 125 new death sen­tences in 2005, one less than in 2004. In addi­tion, AJS count­ed 14 death sen­tences imposed through new sen­tence pro­ceed­ings after appel­late rever­sals. Those sen­tenced to death includ­ed 63 white defen­dants, 57 black defen­dants, and 15 Hispanics. The largest num­ber of death sen­tences were imposed in California (19) and Florida (16). Texas had 14 death sen­tences, down…

Victims of vio­lence and ter­ror are not nec­es­sar­i­ly well served by a sys­tem that promis­es​“clo­sure” in the form of the death penal­ty, accord­ing to a recent Washington Post col­umn by Dahlia Lithwick. Among oth­er cas­es, the author ques­tions the assump­tions in the fed­er­al gov­ern­men­t’s case against Zacarias Moussaoui as it relates to the needs of the fam­i­ly mem­bers from the September 11^th attack: The death penal­ty tri­al of Zacarias Moussaoui has been tout­ed by the…

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on March 24 that it will rehear Kansas v. Marsh. This case involves the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Kansas’ death penal­ty law, which was struck down by the state Supreme Court in 2004. Kansas law required a death sen­tence if the jury found that there was an equal bal­ance between the aggra­vat­ing and mit­i­gat­ing fac­tors pre­sent­ed at the sen­tenc­ing hear­ing. The U.S. Supreme Court heard argu­ments ear­li­er in December when Justice O’Connor was still…

March 26, 2006Does Killing Really Give Closure?By Dahlia LithwickThe past few weeks have been rife with the prospect of clo­sure denied.The fam­i­lies of Slobodan Milosevic’s tens of thou­sands of vic­tims were osten­si­bly denied clo­sure when he died before the con­clu­sion of his war crimes tri­bunal. The deci­sion over where to try exiled Liberian ruler Charles Taylor turns large­ly on how to afford clo­sure to his vic­tims. And the fam­i­lies of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001,…

Most New Yorkers would choose a sen­tence of life with­out parole (LWOP) over the death penal­ty for those con­vict­ed of mur­der. In a recent poll pub­lished in Newsday, 53% of N.Y. adults said LWOP is the bet­ter penal­ty, where­as only 38% chose the death penal­ty, with 9% uncer­tain. New York’s death penal­ty was found uncon­sti­tu­tion­al by the state’s high­est court in 2004. The leg­is­la­ture elect­ed not to…