Publications & Testimony

Judge Carolyn Dineen King of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit was the main speaker at the “Red Mass” on October 4 at the Catholic cathedral in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Red Mass is an annual liturgy held for members of the legal profession near the beginning of the judicial term. Its traditions extend back to 13^th century Europe. Judge King spoke about the death penalty, both from her perspective as a judge and as a Catholic. In both areas, she raised strong concerns about the…

A recent law review article by Prof. Michael Mannheimer of the Salmon P. Chase College of Law argues that the federal penalty may violate the Eighth Amendment’s proscription against cruel and unusual punishments when it is used in states that do not have the death penalty. Prof. Mannheimer explores the strain of the Eighth Amendment’s history that is specifically concerned with limiting the federal government’s power to interfere with the norms of individual states. He also notes that there has…

Dennis Counterman was freed from a Pennsylvania courtroom on October 18, 2006 after serving many years on the state’s death row. Counterman had been convicted and sentenced to death in 1990 for allegedly setting a fire in his own house that resulted in the death of his three children. That conviction was overturned in 2001 because prosecutors had withheld evidence from the defense indicating that the oldest child had a history of fire-setting. At Counterman’s orignial trial, the prosecution…

In a recent speech to law students from Furman University, William W. Wilkins, the Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, expressed doubts about the value of the death penalty given its high costs and probable lack of deterrence. He also noted that the existence of the death penalty in the U.S. makes it very difficult to extradite suspects from foreign countries who oppose capital punishment. With respect to the extra costs attibutable to capital cases, Wilkins noted…

The Common Sense Foundation of North Carolina released a study on October 11, 2006 that found that at least 37 people now on death row had trial lawyers who would not have met today’s minimum standards of qualification. Nearly a third of the cases where sufficient data was available fell into this substandard category. The study also lists the names of 16 people who have been executed whose trial lawyers did not meet these same standards. Over half of the executions in the state where data was…

On October 13, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear two capital cases from Texas in which the defendant was sentenced to death after the jury was given instructions that the Court has since found unconstitutional. Unlike in most states where the jury considers a range of aggravating and mitigating circumstances about the crime and the defendant before choosing a sentence of life or death, in Texas the jury was (the law has since been modified) given a series of yes-or-no questions about the…

A broad spectrum of religious leaders from Wisconsin issued a joint statement regarding their views on the death penalty on October 14. The statement follows: ‘Simply put, we cannot support the death penalty’ Posted: Oct. 14, 2006 There are many articulate and compelling arguments for rejecting the death penalty referendum on the Nov. 7 ballot. We will not rehearse those arguments here. As religious leaders, we wish to present a straightforward, values-based argument. We believe that it is…

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal from Texas death row inmate LaRoyce Smith even though they had reviewed his case once before. On October 6, 2006, the Court granted certiorari to decide whether the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had applied the wrong standard after the Supreme Court had sent Smith’s case back to them earlier. The dispute does not involve Smith’s 1991 conviction for the murder of a Taco Bell manager in Dallas. Rather the Supreme Court held (7 – 2) in 2004 that…

Edward Johnson is a former FBI Agent who currently oversees investigative work for the Union County (NJ) Prosecutor’s Office. He recently expressed his personal opinions about the state’s death penalty. He concluded that in New Jersey public opinion may now have moved to the point where the death penalty will be abolished. He noted, in part: Quite frankly, it’s the time lag between conviction and execution that militates against any deterrent effect. Even in states with an active death…

At a joint press conference held by the European Commission (EC) and the Council of Europe, Vice-President Franco Frattini of the EC stated that “the administration of State killing via the judicial system serves no useful purpose in preventing crime but can have a brutalising effect on societies that inflict it”. Their press release marking this occasion noted that considerable progress has been made towards abolishing the death penalty: There [has] been constant progress towards worldwide…