Publications & Testimony

Studies and sur­veys have found that both minors and the men­tal­ly impaired are more like­ly to make false con­fes­sions, in part because they are more vul­ner­a­ble to sug­ges­tion. A recent study con­duct­ed by Northwestern University law pro­fes­sor Steve Drizin and UC Irvine crim­i­nol­o­gist Richard Leo exam­ined 125 cas­es in which indi­vid­u­als were exon­er­at­ed after giv­ing false con­fes­sions. The researchers found that 32% of the cas­es involved minors and 22% of the cas­es involved indi­vid­u­als with mental…

As the U.S. Supreme Court con­sid­ers Roper v. Simmons, a case that will deter­mine the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of exe­cut­ing juve­nile offend­ers, new sci­en­tif­ic research con­tin­ues to emerge regard­ing the brain devel­op­ment of those under 18 years of age. New MRI-based research has shown that the brain con­tin­ues to devel­op and mature into the mid-20’s, and that pri­or to the com­ple­tion of this process, ado­les­cents use their brains in dif­fer­ent ways than adults. For exam­ple, teens often oper­ate from a more…

The University of Chicago Law School’s Journal of Law and Economics fea­tures an arti­cle by researchers Jeffrey Kubik and John Moran exam­in­ing the rela­tion­ship between pol­i­tics and exe­cu­tions. In their arti­cle, Lethal Elections: Gubernatorial Politics and the Timing of Executions, Kubik and Moran found that states are about 25% more like­ly to con­duct exe­cu­tions in guber­na­to­r­i­al elec­tion years than in oth­er years. They also found that the effect of elec­tions on exe­cu­tions is more…

A recent San Francisco mag­a­zine arti­cle enti­tled ​“Innocence Lost,” exam­ines California’s record of wrong­ful con­vic­tions. The researchers report that the nation’s largest crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem has sent more inno­cent peo­ple to prison for longer terms than any oth­er state. Among the exonerees are three from the state’s death row and near­ly 200 peo­ple who were serv­ing either life or very long terms. The mag­a­zine notes that despite these num­bers, state law­mak­ers have repeat­ed­ly passed up…

The FBI recent­ly released its Uniform Crime Report for 2003. The num­ber of mur­ders in the United States increased slight­ly from 16,229 to 16,503. Once again, the South had the high­est mur­der rate (6.9 mur­ders per 100,000 peo­ple). In 2003, the South car­ried out 89% of the exe­cu­tions in the coun­try. The Northeast had the low­est mur­der rate in the coun­try (4.2 mur­ders per 100,000 peo­ple) and car­ried out no exe­cu­tions in 2003. (2003 FBI Uniform Crime Report, October 27, 2004 (exe­cu­tion…

President Bush signed into law the Justice for All Act (H.R.5107) that includes a ver­sion of the Innocence Protection Act. The bill was co-spon­sored by Senators Patrick Leahy (D‑Vt.) and Orrin Hatch (R.-Ut.). It will cre­ate a post-con­vic­tion test­ing process to pro­tect inno­cent defen­dants and pro­vide train­ing funds for the defense and pros­e­cu­tion in death penal­ty cas­es. (Salt Lake Tribune, Nov. 2, 2004). See the Justice Project for more details on the…

Dominique Green was exe­cut­ed in Texas on October 26 despite calls for a stay from a fed­er­al judge, Nobel Peace Prize win­ner Desmond Tutu, and the vic­tim’s fam­i­ly. A U.S. District Court judge in Houston had post­poned the exe­cu­tion until the city’s police depart­ment could com­plete cat­a­loging 280 box­es of recent­ly dis­cov­ered evi­dence that could impact thou­sands of crim­i­nal cas­es. That stay was over­turned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Green had admit­ted that he was present…

The Justice for All Act of 2004, Public Law No: 108 – 405, became law on October 30, 2004, and affects the death penal­ty by cre­at­ing a DNA test­ing pro­gram and autho­riz­ing grants to states for cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion and cap­i­tal defense improve­ment. Specifically, the…

According to an Iranian jus­tice depart­ment spokesper­son, the Iranian Parliament is expect­ed to approve leg­is­la­tion that would end the death penal­ty for offend­ers under the age of 18. The mea­sure would also pro­hib­it lash­ings for those under 18. Under pres­sure from the European Union to reform its human rights record, Iran has had no record­ed ston­ings since late 2002, and the par­lia­ment has enact­ed laws ban­ning tor­ture and the uphold­ing of cit­i­zens’ rights. (AFP, October 26, 2004). The U.S.