Publications & Testimony

Dr. Deepak Chopra recently wrote that continuing use of the death penalty in the U.S. is irrational because it does not deter crime, risks innocent lives, and isolates the U.S. among the majority of First World nations that have chosen to abandon capital punishment: The U.S. has isolated itself among First World countries by allowing the death penalty — 123 countries have abolished it completely, or in practice never use it, a few permitting it under extreme circumstances. Of the 50 countries…

In a 5 – 4 decision that revealed a deep division among the Justices over the fairness of capital punishment, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kansas’s death penalty statute on June 26. In Kansas v. Marsh, the Court held that juries may be required to sentence a defendant to die when there is an equal weight of mitigating and aggravating evidence. The ruling overturns a Kansas Supreme Court decision that found the practice unconstitutional because it violated the Eighth Amendment’s protection…

The Death Penalty Information Center held its 10^th Annual Thurgood Marshall Journalism Awards at the National Press Club on Monday, June 26. This year’s award recipients were Jacqui Lofaro and Victor Teich of Justice Productions for their documentary “The Empty Chair,” and reporter Robert Nelson of the Phoenix New Times for his coverage of death row exoneree Ray Krone. Lofaro and Teich received this year’s Award for excellence in the television broadcast category. Their documentary, “The Empty…

Members of the New York Assembly’s Codes Committee recently voted 13 – 5 against a bill to reinstate the death penalty, a vote that revealed a growing bi-partisan opposition to capital punishment. Last year’s vote on the same measure was 11 – 7. New York’s death penalty was overturned in 2004 by the state’s highest court. A number of Assembly members have said they no longer support the death penalty because of growing evidence that it risks innocent lives and because the state now has the…

A Chicago Tribune investigation set for release this weekend will reveal groundbreaking evidence that Texas may have executed an innocent man in 1989. The defendant, Carlos DeLuna, was executed for the fatal stabbing of Texas convenience store clerk Wanda Lopez in 1983. New evidence uncovered by reporters Maurice Possley and Steve Mills casts doubt on DeLuna’s guilt and points towards another man, Carlos Hernandez, who had a record of similar crimes and repeatedly confessed to the murder.

In the wake of numerous lawsuits challenging current lethal injection procedures and a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that makes it easier for those on death row to file such claims, medical experts have identified alternative protocols that would be less risky to the prisoner but more difficult for witnesses to observe. “There’s an innumerably long list of medications that can be given to cause someone to die,” said Dr. Mark Dershwitz, a professor of anesthesiology at the University of…

According to the FBI’s Preliminary Uniform Crime Report for 2005, all regions of the country experienced a rise in murder rates in 2005. The Midwest had the largest increase (5.8%) and the West had the smallest increase (3.2%). Based on the increases reported by the FBI and the previous year’s murder rates, the South again had the highest murder rate in the country— 6.9 murders per 100,000 people — followed by the West (5.9), Midwest (5.0) and the Northeast (4.4). The rates for forcible rape were…

The League of Women Voters of the United States has adopted an official national policy calling for abolition of the death penalty. During the organization’s 47^th biennial national convention in Minneapolis, delegates adopted policy language stating, “The League of Women Voters of the United States supports the abolition of the death penalty.” The League of Women Voters has more than 130,000 members and supporters. It is a non-partisan political organization that encourages the informed and…

July 2, 2006 will mark the 30^th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Gregg v. Georgia, an historic ruling that upheld newly crafted death penalty statutes and signaled the beginning of the modern era of capital punishment. This milestone presents the public with an opportunity to examine the application of the death penalty over the past three decades and to test whether the Court’s expectation of a fairer and less arbitrary system of capital punishment has been fulfilled. As…

The U.S. Supreme has expanded the ability of death row inmates to challenge their convictions in federal court based on DNA evidence produced long after their trials. The ruling marks the first time that the Justices have considered the new evidentiary technology of DNA evidence when re-examining a death sentence. In its 5 – 3 decision, the Court held that new evidence, including DNA test results, raised sufficient doubt to merit a new hearing in federal court for Tennessee death row inmate Paul…