Publications & Testimony

During his recent State of the Union address before Congress, President George W. Bush raised con­cerns about race, wrong­ful con­vic­tions, and ade­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion for those facing the…

Key mem­bers of the New York Legislature who sup­port­ed the death penal­ty when it was rein­stat­ed in 1995 have changed their posi­tions and now favor let­ting the law expire. Joseph Lentol, Chair of the Codes Committee of the N.Y. Assembly, says he now sup­ports life with­out parole instead of restor­ing the death penal­ty for which he vot­ed in 1995. His announce­ment came at the con­clu­sion of hear­ings into the issue. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver stat­ed that he will not be…

By PATRICK D. HEALYALBANY, Feb. 10 — A sol­id major­i­ty of Democrats in the State Assembly now oppose res­ur­rect­ing the death penal­ty, includ­ing key lead­ers who vot­ed for the law in 1995, mak­ing it more like­ly that it will not be revived, accord­ing to law­mak­ers on both sides.After two months of hear­ings into the issue, the chair­man of the Assembly Codes Committee, Joseph R. Lentol, said on Thursday that he now sup­port­ed life with­out parole instead of restor­ing the death…

Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney joined a lengthy list of high-pro­­file New Yorkers tes­ti­fy­ing that they oppose rein­state­ment of New York’s death penal­ty. During a leg­isla­tive hear­ing in Albany, Carney tes­ti­fied that New York would be best served by aban­don­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and sen­tenc­ing offend­ers to life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. He cit­ed the high costs of the death penal­ty and the spe­cial pro­tec­tions that would need to be put in…

Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Robert Mulligan recent­ly over­turned Laurence Adams’ con­vic­tion for a 1972 mur­der of a tran­sit work­er because police had with­held crit­i­cal evi­dence. Adams had been con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1974 based on the tes­ti­mo­ny of two wit­ness­es who had unre­lat­ed charges dropped fol­low­ing the tri­al. The gov­ern­men­t’s key wit­ness tes­ti­fied that Adams had admit­ted to the offense in a dis­cus­sion in a pri­vate home, but…

Though he has spent more than a decade in men­tal hos­pi­tals and his tri­al was post­poned for 18 years due to ques­tions regard­ing his san­i­ty, Sherman Noble was recent­ly sen­tenced to death in Kentucky after serv­ing as his own defense coun­sel. In 1988, Noble was declared incom­pe­tent to stand tri­al and was placed in a men­tal hos­pi­tal for fur­ther eval­u­a­tion and treat­ment. He was lat­er declared com­pe­tent in 1997. Noble attempt­ed sui­cide on the day of his sentencing and…

Kenneth W. Starr, a for­mer fed­er­al judge and U.S. Solicitor General, recent­ly rep­re­sent­ed Virginia death row inmate Robin Lovitt before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4^th Circuit. Though he sup­ports cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, Starr stated that ​“the death penal­ty has to be admin­is­tered with the utmost cau­tion and reserved for the gravest offens­es. This is not that kind of case. Robin Lovitt main­tains his inno­cence, and evi­dence that might prove his inno­cence has been…

Priscilla Joyce Ford, who suf­fered from a vari­ety of men­tal ill­ness­es and who was the lone woman on Nevada’s death row for more than twen­ty years, died of appar­ent com­pli­ca­tions from emphy­se­ma on January 29, 2005. A prison spokesman said, ​“She had been qui­et for so long. No one ever had any prob­lems with her (in prison). I don’t remem­ber hear­ing about her vio­lat­ing any rules.” Ford was sen­tenced to death row after she was con­vict­ed of killing 6 people and…

A recent study of 18 juve­nile offend­ers on death row in Texas found that near­ly all par­tic­i­pants expe­ri­enced seri­ous head trau­mas in child­hood and ado­les­cence, came from extreme­ly vio­lent and/​or abu­sive fam­i­lies, had one or more severe men­tal ill­ness­es, and had signs of pre­frontal brain dys­func­tion. The study, con­duct­ed by Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis of Yale along with oth­er experts, sug­gests that most of the juve­nile offend­ers on America’s death rows suffer from…

Justice Raoul Cantero (pic­tured), recent­ly appoint­ed to Florida’s Supreme Court by Gov. Jeb Bush, crit­i­cized the qual­i­ty of pri­vate lawyers han­dling the appeals of death row inmates, not­ing that some attor­neys have botched cas­es, mud­dled and omit­ted key argu­ments, and gen­er­al­ly per­formed​“the worst lawyer­ing I’ve seen.” He also seri­ous­ly ques­tioned Governor Bush’s effort to replace the state-run region­al offices that han­dle death penal­ty appeals with private…