Publications & Testimony

As the Supreme Court heard argu­ments in the case of Roper v. Simmons on October 13, news­pa­pers through­out the coun­try fea­tured edi­to­ri­als and opin­ion pieces call­ing on the U.S. to aban­don the prac­tice of exe­cut­ing juve­nile offend­ers:The New York Times When the Supreme Court con­sid­ers an Eighth Amendment chal­lenge, it looks to​“evolv­ing stan­dards of decen­cy” — and there has been a steady move­ment nation­al­ly away from the juve­nile death penal­ty. In the…

117^th INNOCENT PERSON FREED FROM DEATH ROW Ernest Willis became the eighth per­son exon­er­at­ed from Texas’s death row on October 6, 2004, and the 117^th per­son freed nation­wide since 1973. Willis was sen­tenced to death 17 years ago for alleged­ly set­ting a house fire that killed two peo­ple. U. S. District Judge Royal Ferguson held that the state had admin­is­tered medically inappropriate…

St. Louis…

University Wire (University…

Battleboro (Vermont) ReformerOctober 13, 2004Too…

Battleboro (Vermont)…

Following a call from the Houston Police Chief and from state leg­is­la­tors to halt exe­cu­tions in cas­es from Harris County, four of the state’s largest news­pa­pers pub­lished edi­to­ri­als in sup­port of a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. The Houston police crime lab has been plagued with errors in DNA test­ing and preser­va­tion of evi­dence. There have been far more exe­cu­tions from Harris County (Houston) than from any oth­er coun­ty in the coun­try. AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN (N)othing…

In ​“Waiting to Die: Life on Death Row,” Richard M. Rossi pro­vides a first-hand account of his dai­ly life on Arizona’s death row. Rossi was sen­tenced to death in 1983 and has tak­en respon­si­bil­i­ty for the mur­der he com­mit­ted. He was orig­i­nal­ly offered a plea bar­gain with a life sen­tence, but he decid­ed to go to tri­al. He has been on death row for 20 years. In his book, Rossi details how pris­on­ers sur­vive on death row, the con­di­tions under which they live, and the…

The Republican (Springfield,…

On October 9, the U.S. Senate passed by voice vote a bill called the​“Justice for All Act of 2004” that con­tains impor­tant ele­ments of the Innocence Protection Act, orig­i­nal­ly intro­duced in 2000. A sim­i­lar bill recent­ly over­whelm­ing­ly passed the House of Representatives (HR 5107), and it is expect­ed that the final leg­is­la­tion will now be signed into law. The bill pro­vides for expand­ed access to DNA test­ing for prison inmates and assis­tance to states for both…