Publications & Testimony

Bill Kurtis Describes His Shift on the Death…

Article Examines Statistical Models of Measuring Deterrence In the July 2004 Skeptical Enquirer, Rutgers Sociology pro­fes­sor Ted Goertzel exam­ines the meth­ods — and the vari­ant results that emerge — used in study­ing the deter­rent effect of exe­cu­tions on homi­cide. Read the article…

Kansas Death Penalty Advisory Committee Releases…

Broken System: Error Found in Three-Quarters of New Jersey Death Cases Of the 63 death sen­tences hand­ed down since New Jersey rein­stat­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in 1982, 47 have been over­turned, includ­ing that of Robert Marshall, whose death sen­tence was reversed on April 8^th by a fed­er­al court. Marshall had been on New Jersey’s death row longer than any oth­er inmate pri­or to the vacat­ing of his sen­tence. New Jersey has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since bring­ing back the…

A new report by the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project dis­cuss­es the United States’ posi­tion on the death penal­ty in the face of inter­na­tion­al con­cerns regard­ing this prac­tice. The report, How the Death Penalty Weakens U.S. International Interests, notes that many oth­er nations are mov­ing toward abo­li­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and are crit­i­cal of spe­cif­ic aspects of the death penal­ty in the U.S. Among the top­ics fea­tured in this resource are the ongo­ing inter­na­tion­al efforts to abolish…

The December 2004 issue of the American Psychological Association Journal, Psychology, Public Policy, & Law, con­tains arti­cles devot­ed to impor­tant and emerg­ing top­ics relat­ed to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Craig Haney, Richard Wiener, James Acker, and Charles Lanier are among the issue’s con­tribut­ing writ­ers who pro­vide expert analy­sis in areas such as cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing, the U.S. Supreme Court’s deci­sion-mak­ing, pub­lic opin­ion, vic­tim impact state­ments, mora­to­ri­um efforts, inno­cence, and other…

The con­tro­ver­sial tenure of Attorney General John Ashcroft is already being debat­ed, even before he departs. But one aspect of his lega­cy is very much in…

The Death Penalty Information Center’s 2004 Year End Report not­ing the declines in death sen­tences, exe­cu­tions, and the num­ber of peo­ple on death row was cov­ered by about 200 news out­lets through­out the U.S. and over­seas. Some news­pa­pers took the occa­sion to edi­to­ri­al­ize about the state of the death penal­ty: Detroit Free Press The death penal­ty, thank­ful­ly, is mak­ing its own slow demise in the United States. Given the legal, moral and eco­nom­ic prob­lems with the death penal­ty, all 38…

Capital Consequences: Families of the Condemned Tell Their Stories is a new book by Rachel King of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project. The book focus­es on the impact that the death penal­ty has on the fam­i­lies of those who have been con­demned to die. King, who also wrote ​“Don’t Kill in Our Names: Families of Murder Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty,” describes these indi­vid­u­als as the unseen vic­tims of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and high­lights the expe­ri­ence of having loved…

Published on Tuesday, December 28, 2004 by the Miami Herald by Bianca…