Publications & Testimony

Ruling that the current mix of drugs used to carry out California’s lethal injections may constitute cruel and unusual punishment, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel has ordered California to alter its lethal injection procedures before it carries out the scheduled execution of Michael Morales on February 21. Fogel, who said he is troubled by the prospect that inmates may be conscious and undergoing extreme pain once a paralyzing agent and then a heart-stopping drug are administered during…

An exhibit featuring artist Taryn Simon’s 45 photographic portraits of individuals freed by DNA evidence is on display at Provisions Library in Washington, DC, from February 11 to April 15, 2006. During the D.C. exhibit, which is part of a traveling exhibition curated by Umbrage Editions to mark the 10^th anniversary of the New York City-based Innocence Project, a series of related events will also be offered to more closely examine the issue of wrongful convictions. Among the special…

Steven P. Grossman, a former New York City prosecutor and a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, recently wrote in The Baltimore Sun that the death penalty is ​“not worth the societal effort it requires and the wounds it causes.” The case of Maryland death row inmate Vernon Evans,who received a stay jsut prior to his scheduled execution this month, prompted Grossman to examine capital punishment as it relates to victims’ families and whether executions deter future violent…

The most recent edition of the Amicus Journal, a London publication that provides a forum for dialogue on issues concerning capital punishment around the world, contains articles addressing U.S. death penalty concerns. Among the topics covered are clemency, mental retardation, conditions on death row, ineffective assistance of counsel, and lethal injection. The magazine features pieces by a number of U.S. death penalty experts, including an essay on clemency by Austin Sarat and a reprint of a…

Delaware state prosecutors announced that they will not seek the death penalty for Thomas Capano, a former millionaire influential in state politics who was convicted of murdering Anne Marie Fahey. Capano will instead face a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. ​“Every criminal case has a natural end. We have reached that point in this case. I am satisfied that justice is served by having Thomas Capano spend every day of the rest of his life in prison,” said Deleware…

An article in the Science section of the N.Y. Times reports on research conducted by psychologists at Stanford University on the effects of executions on prison staff. After interviewing nearly 250 prison staff members from three states, the researchers concluded that those who participate in execution teams exhibit high levels of ​“moral disengagement,” which one of the researchers described as the ​“ability to selectively engage and disengage our moral standards.” The study found that the…

Supplement Letter for the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights’ Hearing on the Death Penalty (Feb. 7, 2006)

The Constitution Project’s blue-ribbon Death Penalty Initiative released a new report, ​“Mandatory Justice: The Death Penalty Revisited,” an updated set of guiding principles for reform of death penalty systems. The group is comprised of current and former FBI officials, state attorneys general, religious leaders, victims of crime, academics, legal experts, and community leaders. They identified specific improvements to address problems such as arbitrariness, race, ineffectiveness of counsel…