Publications & Testimony

The last six exe­cu­tions sched­uled for 2004 have all been grant­ed stays by var­i­ous courts and gov­er­nors. Executions slat­ed in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Texas, Maryland and North Carolina were halt­ed for review of claims regard­ing pos­si­ble inno­cence, men­tal dis­abil­i­ties, exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures, and oth­er issues. The last exe­cu­tion occurred on November 17 in Texas. No oth­er state has an exe­cu­tion sched­uled for 2004. See…

DPIC has pre­pared a sum­ma­ry of the Innocence Protection Act of 2004, which became law on October 30, 2004 as part of the Justice for All Act. The law pro­vides rules and pro­ce­dures for fed­er­al inmates apply­ing for DNA test­ing, cre­ates the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Grant Program for state inmates apply­ing for test­ing, and autho­rizes $25 mil­lion over five years to help states pay the cost of post-con­vic­tion DNA test­ing. Read DPIC’s Summary of the Innoecnce Protection…

A new book by Dale Recinella, The Biblical Truth About America’s Death Penalty, ana­lyzes cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment through an exam­i­na­tion of reli­gious texts and teach­ings. Using sources such as the Torah, the Talmud, and the Bible, Recinella out­lines what bib­li­cal texts say regard­ing who is deserv­ing of the death penal­ty and who is grant­ed the author­i­ty to impose such a sen­tence. While explor­ing issues such as inno­cence, race, men­tal capac­i­ty, and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, Recinella weaves biblical…

(Note: Dec. 1 exe­cu­tion of Frances Newton has been stayed by the gov­er­nor.) As Texas plans to car­ry out the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Frances Newton on December 1, a new report doc­u­ment­ing the results of a nation­al sur­vey of women cur­rent­ly on death row found that many women have been sub­ject­ed to harsh liv­ing con­di­tions and that most were sen­tenced for the mur­der of some­one they knew. The report, The Forgotten Population: A Look at Death Row in the United States Through the Experiences of…

A review of Louisiana’s death penal­ty in recent years revealed that twice as many con­demned inmates have walked free from death row than have been exe­cut­ed. Since 1999, of the 22 peo­ple whose cas­es were final­ly resolved, 12 had their death sen­tences reversed and were ordered to serve less­er sen­tences, 6 were freed after courts ordered their charges dis­missed, 1 died of nat­ur­al caus­es, and 3 were exe­cut­ed. Of the three who were exe­cut­ed, two were rep­re­sent­ed by attor­neys no longer allowed…

William S. Sessions, who served as direc­tor of the FBI from 1987 to 1993, and Charles F. Baird, a for­mer Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge from 1990 to 1998, have called for a halt to exe­cu­tions in Texas because of the risk of exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son. Sessions and Baird, both of whom are native Texans, cit­ed the prob­lems at the Houston Crime Lab as a prin­ci­pal rea­son for their doubts about the reli­a­bil­i­ty of the death penal­ty sys­tem: Since November 2002, when its…

A recent Gallup Poll mea­sur­ing pub­lic opin­ion regard­ing the death penal­ty revealed a decline in sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The poll found that 66% of Americans sup­port the death penal­ty for those con­vict­ed of mur­der, down 5% from an ear­li­er 2004 poll and sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er than the high of 80% in 1994. In an analy­sis of Gallup polls on this ques­tion from 2001 to 2004, women were more like­ly to oppose the death penal­ty than men. Among African-American respon­dents, 49% opposed the death…

Charles Walker is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in North Carolina on December 3 for the 1992 mur­der of Elmon Davidson. His con­vic­tion rests sole­ly on the tes­ti­mo­ny of snitch tes­ti­mo­ny because author­i­ties were unable to find Davidson’s body or any evi­dence link­ing Walker to the crime. Walker’s attor­neys have asked North Carolina Governor Mike Easley to grant clemen­cy for their client and to reduce his sen­tence to life in prison with­out parole. Walker was con­vict­ed on the tes­ti­mo­ny of five witnesses…

According to promi­nent New York law­mak­ers, there is lit­tle chance that leg­is­la­tors will pass a bill this year to fix the state’s uncon­sti­tu­tion­al death penal­ty. Many experts believe that the state’s statute, which N.Y.‘s high­est court struck down ear­li­er this year, may nev­er be re-enact­ed. Republican Senator Dale M. Volker not­ed that when the Court of Appeals struck down the law, New York heard ​“the death knell of the death penal­ty, for the time being.” Sheldon Silver, the Democratic Speaker…

Editorials in papers around the coun­try have not­ed that many Americans are rethink­ing the death penal­ty because it is deeply flawed. Among the recent edi­to­r­i­al obser­va­tions were the fol­low­ing: New Jersey’s Star-Ledger Fewer peo­ple are being giv­en the death penal­ty in the United States, accord­ing to the Justice Department, which says such sen­tences are at a 30-year low. Last year, the num­ber of peo­ple who were sen­tenced to die totaled 144. While these num­bers are heart­en­ing in that they…