Publications & Testimony

One of the first inmates scheduled to be executed in 2007 is Ronald Chambers, who has been on death row since Gerald Ford was President, and longer than any other inmate in Texas. He is facing execution on January 25, thirty-one years after he was first sentenced to death for murder. His co-defendant in the crime, Clarence Ray Williams, pleaded guilty and is serving two life sentences. Chambers’ conviction was overturned twice since 1976, including once on the grounds that prosecutors…

As 2006 draws to a close, most executions in ten states are effectively on hold as aspects of their capital punishment laws are examined. Two states, Illinois and New Jersey, have a formal moratorium on all executions while the viability of the death penalty is considered. In eight other states, almost all executions are being stayed as the states grapple with the lethal injection issue. Those states are Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, and South Dakota. In…

In his final article for 2006, columnist Richard Cohen chose to highlight the “madness of the death penalty” and to draw attention to the execution of those with mental illness. Cohen used the case of Gregory Thompson, a severely mentally ill Tennessee death row inmate, to illustrate some of the broader problems with the death penalty. Thompson is delusional, paranoid, schizophrenic, and depressed. He takes 12 pills every day and receives twice-monthly anti-psychotic injections. Cohen notes…

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 has continued to decline, falling to 3,344 as of October 1, 2006. The size of death row has been declining since 2000 after 25 years of steady increases. For the first time in many years, Florida (398) surpassed Texas (392) in the size of its deathrow. California (657) continued to have the largest death row. Nationally, the racial composition of those on…

Following an announcement that prosecutors would not seek the death penalty for Naveed Haq, who is accused of killing one woman and wounding five others at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, two of Haq’s victims said they supported the decision to seek a life sentence. “The death penalty most likely promulgates further violence and revenge,” said Cheryl Stumbo, who was wounded in the attack. King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng classified it as “one of the most serious crimes that has ever…

Maryland’s highest court has ruled that the state’s adoption of its lethal injection protocols is subject to the state’s Administrative Procedures Act, and it halted all executions until the protocols are properly reviewed. This decision may require prison officials to conduct hearings on the lethal injection procedures in a forum open to the public for comment. The Maryland Court of Appeals ruling comes just days after executions in California and Florida were halted amid concerns that lethal…

New polling results released by the University of Kentucky Survey Center reveal that Kentuckians overwhelmingly choose alternatives over the death penalty as the most appropriate punishment for those convicted of aggravated murder. When asked to select the most appropriate sentencing option from choices currently available to Kentucky jurors serving in capital murder trials, 67% selected sentences other than the death penalty. The first choice among respondents was life without parole. The…

Commenting on the recent halting of executions over the lethal injection controversy and DPIC’s Year End Report, the Boston Globe raised the question of “whether execution by any method is right.” Their editorial concluded that “[t]his hit-and-miss system offers no protection for society,” and stated that a life-without parole alternative would “protect society while allowing for redress if a prisoner could show he was wrongly convicted. A ban on executions would spare judges and juries from…

The ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel (pictured) on Friday, December 15, appears intended to spur California public officials to modify the current system of putting inmates to death. Judge Fogel’s order was not a final decision, but rather a “Memorandum of Intended Decision: Request for Response from Defendants.” The defendants in this case are the corrections officials of the state, including, ultimately, the governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Judge Fogel makes clear that…