Publications & Testimony
Items: 5351 — 5360
Sep 30, 2005
New Play About the Life of Karla Faye Tucker to Open in New York
Karla, a new play by singer and songwriter Steve Earle will open at the 45 Bleecker St. Theatre on October 20 in New York City. The play tells the life story of Karla Faye Tucker, the first woman executed in Texas since the Civil War. She was executed by lethal injection in 1998 while George W. Bush was governor, despite her obvious rehabilitation and opposition from a broad…
Read MoreSep 29, 2005
NEW RESOURCE: Congressional Quarterly Reviews Death Penalty Developments
The entire current edition of Congressional Quarterly’s CQ Researcher is devoted to a comprehensive look at the death penalty in the U.S. This special CQ report, authored by Kenneth Jost and entitled “Death Penalty Controversies,” explores the history of the U.S. death penalty and changing public opinion about its use. It also looks at the current status of state moratorium developments, the continuing decline in U.S. executions, state responses to…
Read MoreSep 28, 2005
Race and the Death Penalty in California
RACE AND THE DEATH PENALTY IN CALIFORNIA A recent study to be published in the Santa Clara Law Review found that the race of the victim in the underlying murder greatly affected whether a defendant would be sentenced to death.Generally, there are more Hispanic and African American victims of murder in California: –California Murder Victims 1990 – 1999 — Office of…
Read MoreSep 28, 2005
Supreme Court Agrees to Consider Third Death Penalty Case Involving Issues of Innocence
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed yesterday to review the case of a death row inmate from South Carolina who was denied the opportunity at trial to present evidence of the possible guilt of another person. In Holmes v. South Carolina, No. 04 – 1327, the Court will consider whether the state’s rules regarding such evidence deprived Holmes of his due process rights to present a complete defense. In 2004, the South Carolina Supreme Court had ruled that the state’s…
Read MoreSep 28, 2005
Judicial Conference of the United States Opposes Bill Cutting Death Penalty Appeals
The Judicial Conference of the United States, the policy making body of the nation’s federal judges, wrote a strong letter to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee opposing parts of the Streamlined Procedures Act (S.1088) that would curtail death penalty appeals. The bill is scheduled to be marked up by the Committee on Thursday, September 29. The judges said the bill could“create unreasonable obstacles to resolution” of death penalty cases, and that it…
Read MoreSep 27, 2005
NEW RESOURCE: Craig Haney’s New Book Explores Years of Death Penatly Research
Craig Haney, professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has just published a new book, Death By Design: Capital Punishment as a Social Psychological System (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2005). Haney explores a number of areas that skew death penalty…
Read MoreSep 26, 2005
Research Links Historical Lynchings to Modern Murder Rates and Capital Punishment
Recent research has revealed a close correlation between the U.S. states that historically carried out the most lynchings and the states that today have the highest homicide rates and most…
Read MoreSep 23, 2005
INTERNATIONAL RESOURCE: “Amicus Journal” Highlights Death Penalty Developments
The Amicus Journal discusses death penalty issues from around the world. The latest edition contains articles on the“teamwork” approach used by capital defense attorneys in Virginia, Africa’s progress in abandoning the death penalty, and a feature on the experience of being a lawyer on the front lines of capital litigation in the U.S. The publication also examines the recent U.S. Supreme Court cases of Medellin v. Dretke and Miller-El v. Dretke. (13 Amicus Journal…
Read MoreSep 22, 2005
Study Finds Race of Victim, Geography Are Key Factors In California Death Sentencing
According to a new study to be published in the Santa Clara Law Review, a defandant in California is more likely to be sentenced to death for killing a white person than for murdering a person of any other race, despite there being more black and Hispanic murder victims in the state. The research also shows that geography plays a key role in whether the death penalty will be sought in a particular case. The study implies that the loss of white lives is considered more…
Read MoreSep 21, 2005
NEW RESOURCE: Foreign Nationals on U.S. Death Rows
The latest edition of the Consular Rights in America newsletter is now available. The newsletter discusses legal and political developments concerning citizens of other countries who are in prison or on death row in the U.S. Issue 29 contains excerpts from the Texas Lawyer of recent arguments before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in the case of Jose Medellin, a Mexican citizen on death row in Texas. This case has already been the subject of arguments before the…
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