Publications & Testimony

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…

October 10^th was World Day Against the Death Penalty, an occassion that Amnesty International used to urge abolition of the death penalty in all African states. Amnesty officials noted that recent developments show a trend toward death penalty abolition among African countries, and they stated that the majority of the continent’s nations have abandoned using capital punishment. Senegal abolished the death penalty for all crimes in December 2004 and Liberia in September 2005. In March 2005…

A jury in Arizona acquitted Christopher Huerstel of first-degree murder and of attempted armed robbery of a Tucson pizzeria in which 3 people were killed. Huerstel, who was 17-years-old at the time the crime was committed, was orignally convicted along with a co-defendant and both were sentenced to death in 2001. His conviction was overturned by the Arizona Supreme Court because of errors by the trial judge. The jury at the re-trial was unable to reach a verdict on second-degree murder, and…

Ruling that jurors in the most recent retrial of Johnny Paul Penry may not have properly considered his claims of mental impairment, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals sent Penry’s case back for re-sentencing. The Texas court’s decision marks the third time that Penry’s death sentence has been overturned during the past 16 years. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned his capital conviction in 1989 in Penry v. Lynaugh, a decision upholding the execution of defendants with mental retardation, but…

In a dissenting opinion filed in the capital case of Moore v. Parker, Judge Boyce Martin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit wrote that “the death penalty in this country is arbitrary, biased, and so fundamentally flawed at its very core that it is beyond repair.” Among his many criticisms of the way capital punishment is applied in the U.S., Martin specifically noted his concerns about the issues of innocence, inadequate defense counsel, and the overall arbitrariness of the…

A new study by a team of researchers at the New York Times looks at the expanding use of life sentences in the American criminal justice system. The study, headed by Times reporter Adam Liptak, found that about 132,000 of the nation’s prisoners, or almost 10%, are serving life sentences. Of those, 28% have life sentences with no chance of parole. This is a marked increase from a 1993 Times study that found 20% of all lifers had no chance of parole. Liptak also reported that about 9,700 people…

(Pursuant to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling in Roper v. Simmons, the death penalty is prohibited in all states for those under the age of 18 when the offense for which they were charged was committed.) AGE STATES SIXTEEN AND ABOVE (1 state) North Carolina* SEVENTEEN AND ABOVE (8 states) Georgia, Louisiana,** Michigan, Missouri, New York,** South Carolina,** Texas, Wisconsin EIGHTEEN AND ABOVE (41 states plus the District of Columbia) Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado…

Karla, a new play by singer and songwriter Steve Earle will open at the 45 Bleecker St. Theatre on October 20 in New York City. The play tells the life story of Karla Faye Tucker, the first woman executed in Texas since the Civil War. She was executed by lethal injection in 1998 while George W. Bush was governor, despite her obvious rehabilitation and opposition from a broad spectrum of national and international leaders. The play is being presented by The Culture Project, which also presented…