Publications & Testimony

As students return to the classroom this fall, the Death Penalty Information Center is offering educators an updated version of its award-winning Educational Curriculum on the Death Penalty to assist teachers who wish to include this topic in their classrooms. DPIC’s balanced and dynamic online curriculum was designed in conjunction with the Michigan State Communications Technology Laboratory. This free classroom tool offers separate teacher and student sites, flexible lesson plans, teacher…

As students return to the classroom this month, the Death Penalty Information Center is offering teachers an updated version of its free online educational curriculum on the death penalty and other resources to assist educators who wish to incorporate this topic into their classroom lesson plans. DPIC’s award-winning online curriculum was designed by the Michigan State Communications Technology Laboratory in conjunction with the Death Penalty Information Center. It offers separate teacher and…

A federal judge in Boston presiding over the death penalty case of two black defendants has ordered a change in the process of summoning jurors in order to ensure a more diverse jury. U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner wrote a 95-page opinion and noted that it would be “profoundly troubling” if the defendants, Darryl Green and Branden Morris, were to face an all-white jury in a trial for their lives. Gertner cited studies that showed that wealthier geographic areas keep more accurate jury rolls…

U.S. Postal Inspector Gregory Duerr of Cleveland has called for a delay in an upcoming Ohio execution because he said official testimony given in the case of John Spirko was unreliable. Spirko’s November 15 execution date should be “delayed until the serious issues indicating innocence (are) truly resolved,” Duerr noted. In an open letter to Chief Inspector Leroy Heath, Duerr questioned the character of a key state’s witness, retired postal inspector Paul Hartman. Hartman had interrogated…

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian has vowed to abolish the death penalty so that his country can become a nation founded on the basis of human rights. In making his announcement, Chen noted, “Abolishing the death penalty has become a world trend. Almost every year there is one country abolishing the death penalty… . Since I became president in 2000, Taiwan launched the campaign to abolish the death penalty by reducing the handing down and execution of capital punishment, and by making it harder…

As Texas prepares to execute Frances Newton on September 14, the Austin American-Statesman editorialized about the poor quality of representation she received at trial and the doubts that this raises about her conviction. The paper noted: Maybe Frances Newton shot her husband and two children to death in 1987. Maybe she didn’t. The public cannot be certain of her guilt, but she’s going to die for the crime anyway. Newton was denied a basic requirement for a fair trial — a competent lawyer.

Robert Weisberg, a professor at Stanford University’s School of Law, examines recent studies on deterrence and the death penalty, as well as other social science research ragarding capital punishment in the U.S. In The Death Penalty Meets Social Science: Deterrence and Jury Behavior Under New Scrutiny, Weisberg notes that many of the new studies claiming to find that the death penalty deters murder have been legitimately criticized for omitting key variables and for not addressing the potential…

An article in the Fall 2005 edition of the magazine Amnesty International examines whether mentally ill defendants should be exempted from the death penalty, especially in light of the Supreme Court’s rulings exempting juvenile and mentally retarded offenders. The article quotes Ohio Northern University law professor Victor Streib: “The general public too often assumes that only the seriousness of the crime is relevant to the punishment, but the (Supreme) Court has repeatedly held that both the…

The North Carolina State Bar has charged two former Union County prosecutors with lying, cheating, and withholding evidence in a 1996 murder case that ended in a death sentence. The charges state that former Union County District Attorney Kenneth Honeycutt and his assistant, Scott Brewer, each committed 23 violations of the rules that govern lawyers during their 1996 prosecution of Jonathan Hoffman, who was sentenced to death for robbery and murder. The State Bar says that Honeycutt and Brewer…

John Spirko is scheduled for execution on September 20 in Ohio but the state’s Attorney General, Jim Petro, has recommended further review of the case because his senior deputy misrepresented evidence to the Parole Board. The Board voted 6 – 3 against leniency for Spirko, who received a death sentence for a 1982 murder. Other national leaders, such as former FBI Director William S. Sessions, have also urged the state to investigate the case more closely. In a letter to Ohio Governor Bob Taft…