Publications & Testimony

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…

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…

Qin Yanhong was con­vict­ed of rape and mur­der in China in 1999. A pan­el of judges sen­tenced him to death. His con­vic­tion was the result of a con­fes­sion that fol­lowed days of tor­ture and inter­ror­ga­tion by police, despite the fact that such tac­tics are for­bid­den under Chinese law. The senior detec­tive on the case expressed absolute con­fi­dence in the con­vic­tion and even offered to accept the pun­ish­ment if it was proven wrong. In 2001, anoth­er man walked into a nearby…

As stu­dents return to the class­room this fall, the Death Penalty Information Center is offer­ing edu­ca­tors an updat­ed ver­sion of its award-win­n­ing Educational Curriculum on the Death Penalty to assist teach­ers who wish to include this top­ic in their class­rooms. DPIC’s bal­anced and dynam­ic online cur­ricu­lum was designed in con­junc­tion with the Michigan State Communications Technology Laboratory. This free class­room tool offers sep­a­rate teacher and stu­dent sites, flexible…

As stu­dents return to the class­room this month, the Death Penalty Information Center is offer­ing teach­ers an updat­ed ver­sion of its free online edu­ca­tion­al cur­ricu­lum on the death penal­ty and oth­er resources to assist edu­ca­tors who wish to incor­po­rate this top­ic into their class­room les­son plans. DPIC’s award-win­n­ing online cur­ricu­lum was designed by the Michigan State Communications Technology Laboratory in con­junc­tion with the Death Penalty Information Center. It…

A fed­er­al judge in Boston pre­sid­ing over the death penal­ty case of two black defen­dants has ordered a change in the process of sum­mon­ing jurors in order to ensure a more diverse jury. U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner wrote a 95-page opin­ion and not­ed that it would be​“pro­found­ly trou­bling” if the defen­dants, Darryl Green and Branden Morris, were to face an all-white jury in a tri­al for their lives. Gertner cit­ed stud­ies that showed that wealth­i­er geo­graph­ic areas keep…

U.S. Postal Inspector Gregory Duerr of Cleveland has called for a delay in an upcom­ing Ohio exe­cu­tion because he said offi­cial tes­ti­mo­ny giv­en in the case of John Spirko was unre­li­able. Spirko’s November 15 exe­cu­tion date should be​“delayed until the seri­ous issues indi­cat­ing inno­cence (are) tru­ly resolved,” Duerr not­ed. In an open let­ter to Chief Inspector Leroy Heath, Duerr ques­tioned the char­ac­ter of a key state’s wit­ness, retired postal inspector Paul…

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has vowed to abol­ish the death penal­ty so that his coun­try can become a nation found­ed on the basis of human rights. In mak­ing his announce­ment, Chen not­ed,​“Abolishing the death penal­ty has become a world trend. Almost every year there is one coun­try abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty.… Since I became pres­i­dent in 2000, Taiwan launched the cam­paign to abol­ish the death penal­ty by reduc­ing the hand­ing down and exe­cu­tion of capital…

As Texas pre­pares to exe­cute Frances Newton on September 14, the Austin American-Statesman edi­to­ri­al­ized about the poor qual­i­ty of rep­re­sen­ta­tion she received at tri­al and the doubts that this rais­es about her conviction.

Robert Weisberg, a pro­fes­sor at Stanford University’s School of Law, exam­ines recent stud­ies on deter­rence and the death penal­ty, as well as oth­er social sci­ence research ragard­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the U.S. In The Death Penalty Meets Social Science: Deterrence and Jury Behavior Under New Scrutiny, Weisberg notes that many of the new stud­ies claim­ing to find that the death penal­ty deters mur­der have been legit­i­mate­ly crit­i­cized for omit­ting key variables and…