Publications & Testimony

David Kevin Hocker, a men­tal­ly ill man who waived all his appeals, was exe­cut­ed in Alabama last night (Sept. 30). He was the first per­son to be exe­cut­ed in that state with­out a review by the state’s Supreme Court. Hocker had mur­dered his employ­er in 1998. No one from the vic­tim’s fam­i­ly attend­ed the exe­cu­tion. Hocker’s moth­er did attend her son’s exe­cu­tion, and was so dis­traught she had to leave the wit­ness room. She said that her son had been sui­ci­dal for many years. Hocker’s trial lasted…

Charles Duff’s 1928 pub­li­ca­tion A Handbook on Hanging has been re-pub­lished with updates and a new intro­duc­tion by jour­nal­ist Christopher Hitchens. The book pro­vides read­ers with a satir­ic look at the prac­tice of car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions. Duff writes not only of hang­ing, but of elec­tro­cu­tion, decap­i­ta­tion, and gassing. He also takes a tongue-in-cheek look at issues such as botched exe­cu­tions, pub­lic response to exe­cu­tions, and deter­rence. With fac­tu­al details and notable quotations,…

Despite efforts by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to broad­en the use of the fed­er­al death penal­ty, less than a third of the fed­er­al death penal­ty tri­als since 2001 have result­ed in a death sen­tence. Of the 34 fed­er­al cap­i­tal cas­es Ashcroft autho­rized, 23 did not result in the death penal­ty. Critics say that this poor record sug­gests wan­ing pub­lic enthu­si­asm for exe­cu­tions and that juries and judges see through what many believe to be weak cas­es for the fed­er­al death penal­ty. Ashcroft,…

A series of mur­der cas­es in Oregon under­scores the inef­fec­tive­ness of the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem accord­ing to both death penal­ty sup­port­ers and oppo­nents. Jesse Lee Johnson was sen­tenced to death while two oth­er men who com­mit­ted equal­ly or more bru­tal crimes plea bar­gained to less­er sen­tences. Johnson received a death sen­tence in large part because he main­tained his inno­cence, while con­vict­ed mur­der­ers Ward Weaver and Edward Morris plead­ed guilty in exchange for not receiving…

In the wake of a scan­dal that has called into ques­tion the reli­a­bil­i­ty of the police crime lab’s test­ing and han­dling of evi­dence in Harris County, Texas, Police Chief Harold Hurtt has said that exe­cu­tions of inmates from the coun­ty should not be sched­uled until all rel­e­vant evi­dence has been reex­am­ined to assure accu­ra­cy. He went on to note that the exe­cu­tions of nine indi­vid­u­als con­vict­ed in Harris County that are sched­uled to take place before March 2005 should not be…

On October 6, the 2^nd World Congress Against the Death Penalty will con­vene in Montreal, Canada. More than 1,000 par­tic­i­pants from around the world are expect­ed to gath­er at the city’s Place des Arts, includ­ing many U.S. pol­i­cy mak­ers and death penal­ty experts. Americans such as Mike Farrell, Barry Scheck, and sev­er­al death row exonerees will join inter­na­tion­al human rights lead­ers includ­ing for­mer U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights Mary Robinson, Bianca Jagger, and actress…

Sammy Perkins is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in North Carolina on October 8, despite his men­tal ill­ness and the fact that the jurors at his tri­al did not learn the extent of his dis­abil­i­ty. According to a press release from Perkins’s attor­neys: ​“The jury nev­er heard the full sto­ry of Sammy Perkins’ men­tal dis­or­der: A fam­i­ly his­to­ry of psy­chi­atric prob­lems left its mark on Sammy Perkins. Several fam­i­ly mem­bers suf­fered from men­tal ill­ness­es. In his late teens and ear­ly twen­ties, the time when…

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear a death row appeal from a Pennsylvania man who main­tains that jurors at his tri­al should have been told that they had the option of sen­tenc­ing him to life with­out parole instead of the death penal­ty. According to the brief filed on behalf of Ronald Rompilla, the jury asked sev­er­al ques­tions dur­ing his tri­al about Rompilla’s ​“future dan­ger­ous­ness,” yet were nev­er told that if sen­tenced to prison he would nev­er be eli­gi­ble for lat­er release. The…

The exe­cu­tion of Rickey Dale Newman in Arkansas, sched­uled for the night of September 28, was stayed by the state Supreme Court. Newman had waived his appeals. Nevertheless, there is evi­dence that he may be men­tal­ly retard­ed. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Atkins v. Virginia (2002) that peo­ple with men­tal retar­da­tion can­not be exe­cut­ed. Newman’s case rais­es the ques­tion of whether a third par­ty can inter­vene to request a stay of exe­cu­tion, even though the defen­dant does not want to appeal…

The North Carolina State bar has rep­ri­mand­ed two for­mer assis­tant attor­ney gen­er­als for with­hold­ing evi­dence that could have pre­vent­ed the wrong­ful con­vic­tion of Alan Gell, who was final­ly freed from death row in 2004 (pic­tured). The State Bar pan­el found that pros­e­cu­tors David Hoke and Debra Graves failed to turn over evi­dence to Gell, did not ade­quate­ly super­vise the con­duct of their chief inves­ti­ga­tor for the case, and brought the judi­cial sys­tem into dis­re­pute by their con­duct.…