Publications & Testimony

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…

Edna Weaver, whose daughter was murdered in New Jersey, expressed relief that the defendant was spared the death penalty. She said that she did not want William Severs Jr. executed for killing Tina Lambriola in 2002 because she wanted to spare his mother the pain of losing a child. “I’m so thankful it came out the way it did… . I wouldn’t want another mother to feel like I do — it’s a feeling I could never put into words… . At least his mother will be able to write to him, she will be able to…

As Iraq resumed carrying out the death penalty with the execution of three nationals on September 1, the European Union (EU) expressed its hope that Iraq would abandon capital punishment. In a statement released after the executions, the EU noted, “The EU is of the view that the death penalty does not serve as an effective deterrent and any miscarriage of justice, which might arise in any legal system, would be irreversible. The EU therefore regrets that the government of Iraq has elected to…

A recent editorial in The Washington Post praised Indiana Governor Mitchell Daniels for commuting the death sentence of Arthur Baird, who suffers from severe mental illness. The editorial noted: Indiana Gov. Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. (R) acted wisely and humanely this week in commuting the death sentence of one Arthur Paul Baird II. There is no question that Mr. Baird killed his parents and his pregnant wife back in 1985. There is also little question that he is seriously mentally ill and was so…