Publications & Testimony

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 appeared in court in a…

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 destroyed. I’m very…

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 injur­ing 23 oth­ers by driving…

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 seri­ous conditions which…

A retired prison war­den, vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers, and a for­mer death row inmate were among the near­ly 75 speak­ers at a state Judiciary Committee hear­ing in Hartford, almost all of whom pro­posed end­ing Connecticut’s death penal­ty. Many of the wit­ness­es not­ed that the death penal­ty brings no relief to vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers, fails to deter mur­der, risks inno­cent lives, and is applied in an arbi­trary way. ​“I’m here to tell you that I nev­er met an inmate for whom I had no hope,” said Mary Morgan…

DPIC has added a new easy-to-use state data­base of death penal­ty infor­ma­tion to its Web site. In addi­tion, Richard Dieter’s (DPIC’s Executive Director) tes­ti­mo­ny before the New York State Assembly Standing Committees on Codes, Judiciary, and Correction regard­ing the costs of the death penal­ty is also avail­able. The Committees are hold­ing hear­ings on whether New York should re-instate the death penal­ty. To access infor­ma­tion on any state’s death row pop­u­la­tion, the num­ber of exonerations,…

Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5^th Circuit called on Texas to pay more than ​‘lip ser­vice’ to pro­vid­ing indi­vid­u­als fac­ing the death penal­ty with a tru­ly fair and con­sti­tu­tion­al tri­al. He stat­ed that more resources must be placed on train­ing attor­neys and judges at the tri­al lev­el in order to pro­tect against exe­cut­ing the inno­cent. Higginbotham, writ­ing along with attor­ney Mark Curriden of Vinson & Elkins, not­ed that dur­ing the past three years, the U.S.

A fed­er­al appeals court has ruled that Ohio must either retry British for­eign nation­al Kenny Richey with­in 90 days or free him from death row. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6^th Circuit threw out Richey’s 1987 con­vic­tion and death sen­tence in the arson death of 2‑year-old Cynthia Collins, rul­ing that pros­e­cu­tors failed to offer suf­fi­cient evi­dence of Richey’s guilt. The court also found that his court-appoint­ed attor­ney was ​“out­side the wide range of pro­fes­sion­al­ly competent assistance”…

Former Illinois death row inmate Steven Manning (pic­tured) has been award­ed $6.6 mil­lion in a civ­il law­suit against two FBI agents. A jury found that the agents had framed Manning twice, includ­ing once for mur­der. The jury found FBI agents Robert Buchan and Gary Miller liable of con­coct­ing evi­dence to frame Manning, their one-time infor­mant and a for­mer Chicago police offi­cer, in the mur­der of a truck­ing firm exec­u­tive and in the kid­nap­ping of two Missouri drug deal­ers. Manning’s attorney,…