Publications & Testimony

An Oklahoma man could be executed or spared based on which side of a gravel road in rural McIntosh County a murder took place. Patrick Murphey, who is borderline-mentally retarded and was drunk at the time of the crime, was originally sentenced to death for the murder in 2000. His trial attorney failed to notice that the prosecution had made a two-mile mistake in locating the site of the crime. Murphey’s second attorney, who spent 11 years as a geologist with Conoco before becoming a federal…

Missouri Rep. Bill Deeken (pictured), a Republican death penalty proponent, has introduced legislation that would halt executions in the state until 2011 and would create a capital punishment commission to examine the fairness and accuracy of Missouri’s death penalty. Deeken stated that his motivation for the bill came after realizing that the state’s death penalty has not been implemented fairly in all cases and it does not adequately prevent wrongful convictions. He noted, “I am not against…

Judiciary Committee — Colorado House of Representatives: Testimony of Richard C. Dieter (February 7, 2007)

For the first time in nearly two decades, members of the Nebraska’s unicameral legislature will have an opportunity to debate a bill that would repeal the state’s death penalty and replace it with a sentence of life without parole and an order of restitution. Members of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee unanimously advanced the bill, noting that their colleagues in the full senate should have a chance to debate the measure. The bill’s sponsor, Senator Ernie Chambers, introduced a similar…

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen has issued an executive order establishing a 90-day halt to executions in the state due to concerns that there aren’t enough instructions provided during the execution process. The moratorium will halt four executions scheduled in Tennessee during the next three months. In an official statement, Governor Bredesen said: “I think all of you know that I consider the responsibility of the state to carry out the death penalty among the very most serious…

Willie Williams has been freed from a Georgia prison after spending half of his life, 22 years, behind bars for a crime he did not commit. “I never gave up,” Williams said following his release, which came just 5 days after the Georgia Innocence Project discovered Williams’ DNA did not match a swab taken from the woman he was convicted of raping in 1985. After learning about the DNA evidence excluding Williams, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard ordered Williams released. Prosecutors…

After spending 15 years in a New York prison for murder, Roy Brown has been exonerated through DNA evidence and is free. Brown is the eighth person in New York to be exonerated due to DNA evidence in the past 13 months, more than in any other state during the same period. While in prison, Brown conducted his own investigation of his wrongful conviction and found documents incriminating another man in the murder of Sabina Kulakowski. The documents pointed to Barry Bench, a volunteer firefighter…

The Death Penalty in the United States: Strategies for Change (visuals) by Richard C. Dieter at the World Congress on the Death Penalty (February 1, 2007)

U.S. District Judge Frederick Block recently told federal prosecutors that pursuing a death sentence for Kenneth McGriff would be an “absurd” waste of time and money. According to a court transcript, while jurors were on a break during closing arguments of the guilt phase of McGriff’s trial, Block advised prosecutors to contact their supervisors in Washington, DC, and ask them to reconsider their decision to seek the death penalty if McGriff is convicted in a contract killing conspiracy. He…

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley (pictured) has said that he plans on supporting recently introduced legislation to repeal the state’s death penalty. “I’ve had a pretty consistent position on this. Now that it’s salient, I’m certainly not going to try to duck or hide. I would like to see us repeal the death penalty,” stated O’Malley, who has argued that the death penalty is not a deterrent and that money spent on prosecuting death penalty cases could be better spent fighting violent crime.