Publications & Testimony

According to a new report released by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), structural and procedural flaws in Alabama’s criminal justice system stack the deck against fair trials and appropriate sentencing for those facing the death penalty. The report, Broken Justice: The Death Penalty in Alabama, details unfair and discriminatory practices in the state’s administration of the death penalty. It concentrates on six major areas of concern: inadequate defense, prosecutorial misconduct…

Even as the use of the death penalty continued to decline in the United States, the number of murders and the national murder rate dropped in 2004. According to the recently released FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2004, the nation’s murder rate fell by 3.3%, declining to 5.5 murders per 100,000 people in 2004. By region, the Northeast, which accounts for less than 1% of all U.S. executions, continued to have the nation’s lowest murder rate, 4.2. The Midwest had a murder rate of 4.7, and the…

Various courts issued rulings this week regarding issues important to capital punishment law: The U.S. Supreme Court issued an unsigned opinion holding that it was improper for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to require Arizona to have a jury determine a defendant’s mental retardation status. The Court noted that Arizona’s legislature had not yet addressed whether this issue should be decided by a judge or a jury. The case is Schriro v. Smith, No. 04 – 1475 (October 17, 2005).

Clarence David Hill (pictured) has been freed after spending nearly 16 years on Arizona’s death row. Hill, who is terminally ill, recently had his 1^st-degree murder conviction and death sentence overturned. Though he maintains his innocence in the 1989 murder of his landlord, Hill chose to avoid the prospect of a new trial by accepting an agreement that allowed him to plead guilty to 2^nd-degree murder and be sentenced to time already served. Hill’s attorney noted that his client only took the…

A prosecutor training videotape featuring former Philadelphia assistant district attorney Jack McMahon discussing techniques to keep African Americans off of juries has resulted in yet another murder conviction reversal. Noting that the tape is “compelling evidence” that McMahon “regularly acted with discriminatory animus toward African-American jurors,” a practice made unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1986 decision in Batson v. Kentucky, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3^rd…

The latest edition of the magazine Justice Denied features stories of those who have been wrongly convicted in the United States and internationally, including several death penalty cases. One article is about Lena Baker, who was posthumously pardoned 50 years after Georgia executed her for the murder Ernest B. Knight. The magainze also features a story about the innocence claims raised by Frances Newton, who was recently executed in Texas. Other articles discuss the Streamlined Procedures Act…

A military jury unanimously voted for a death sentence for U.S. Airman Andrew Witt in Georgia on October 13, 2005 following his conviction in the murders of another military officer and his spouse. The murders took place at Robins Air Force Base and stemmed from an interpersonal dispute. The verdict and sentence now go before Maj. Gen. Michael Collings, commander of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center at Robins. Collings has the authority to uphold or modify the verdict and sentence. (Macon…

In a recent opinion addressing several procedural issues regarding the state’s capital punishment law, the Florida Supreme Court urged state legislators to require capital jurors to be unanimous in recommending death sentences or at least in deciding what aggravating factors support a death sentence. “The bottom line is that Florida is now the only state in the country that allows the death penalty to be imposed even though the penalty-phase jury may determine by a mere majority vote both…

The latest edition of Christian Networks Journal features a series of articles under the theme “Shalt Thou Kill?: An In-Depth Look at Capital Punishment.” In addition to commentary from two former governors and articles by death penalty experts Franklin Zimring, Rob Warden, David Dow, and DPIC Executive Director Richard Dieter (on Costs), the magazine also contains interviews and death row stories. The magazine states that its purpose is “to provide honest, level and unbiased education — both…

In its first death penalty case this term, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Brown v. Sanders, a California case in which the Justices considered whether Ronald Sanders was wrongly sentenced to die by jurors who relied on invalid aggravating factors. Sanders was sentenced to death in 1982. The jury found four of the “special circumstances” required in California and some other states for a defendant to be eligible for the death penalty. Two of those aggravating factors were later deemed…