Publications & Testimony

A recent Albany Times Union edi­to­r­i­al called on state leg­is­la­tors to aban­don attempts to rein­state New York’s death penal­ty, which the state’s high­est court found uncon­sti­tu­tion­al because the statute’s jury instruc­tions could be coer­cive. The June 24^th New York Court of Appeals rul­ing in People v. Stephen LaValle spurred pro­posed leg­is­la­tion to rem­e­dy the statute. Some legal crit­ics who have exam­ined the new bill say that it may also be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. The edi­to­r­i­al echoed this sentiment,…

In his new book ​“Jurors’ Stories of Death: How America’s Death Penalty Invests in Inequality,” author Benjamin Fleury-Steiner draws on real-life accounts of white and black jurors in cap­i­tal tri­als to dis­cuss the effect of race on the sen­tenc­ing process. Through his sur­vey of the jurors’ expe­ri­ences, he reveals that race is often a fac­tor in sen­tenc­ing and that the U.S. jus­tice sys­tem can fos­ter an ​“us ver­sus them” men­tal­i­ty among jurors serv­ing in cap­i­tal tri­als. Fleury-Steiner finds…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASECONTACT: Brenda BowserAugust 11, 2004Office: 202.293.6970 — Cell: 301.906.4460Additional Contacts Listed BelowEXPERTS QUESTION ​“QUICK FIX” TO NEW YORK’S DEATH PENALTYLegislators May Address ​“Deadlock Instructions” With Equally Flawed MeasureWASHINGTON, DC – Constitutional experts, law enforce­ment offi­cials, and lead­ing civic orga­ni­za­tions have raised seri­ous con­cerns about a pro­posed ​“quick fix” to New…

Expressing their desire to end emo­tion­al­ly strain­ing court pro­ceed­ings, the fam­i­lies of Maryland mur­der vic­tims Betina ​“Kristi” Gentry and Cynthia V. Allen recent­ly urged Anne Arundel County’s top pros­e­cu­tor to end his 3^rd attempt to get a death sen­tence for the man accused of killing the two women 10 years ago. ​“They’ve been through so much. I can’t look them in the eye and say, ​‘Nah, you have to relive it again.’ I can’t do that,” said State’s Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee after agreeing to…

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley has sent a let­ter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft request­ing that the Justice Department not seek the death penal­ty for a Dorchester drug deal­er charged with mur­der­ing a rival. Ashcroft has indi­cat­ed that the 25-year-old defen­dant, Brima Wurie, could be a can­di­date for the fed­er­al death penal­ty. Conley believes a fed­er­al death penal­ty case against Wurie would alien­ate com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers whose assis­tance has been a valu­able part of…

The pos­si­ble exon­er­a­tion of a man con­vict­ed of rape in 1987 has led inves­ti­ga­tors of the Houston police depart­ment crime lab­o­ra­to­ry to con­clude that the lab’s reli­a­bil­i­ty cri­sis may be worse than was first antic­i­pat­ed. This rev­e­la­tion could lead to re-test­ing of evi­dence in thou­sands of addi­tion­al cas­es from the past 25 years. Six inde­pen­dent foren­sic sci­en­tists said that a crime lab­o­ra­to­ry offi­cial either lacked the basic knowl­edge of blood typ­ing or know­ing­ly gave false tes­ti­mo­ny leading to…

Jefferson Parish pros­e­cu­tors today dis­missed all charges against for­mer Louisiana death row inmate Ryan Matthews. He became the nation’s 115^th death row inmate to be freed accord­ing to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). Matthews was sen­tenced to die in 1999 and spent near­ly five years on death row before DNA evi­dence helped clear him of a mur­der that occurred just two weeks after his 17^th birth­day. (The U.S. Supreme Court will con­sid­er whether death sen­tences for 16- or…

ABC-TV begins a new six-part doc­u­men­tary series ​“In the Jury Room” on Tuesday, August 10 (10 PM Eastern time), with a first-hand look at a death penal­ty delib­er­a­tion. Narrated by senior legal cor­re­spon­dent Cynthia McFadden (pic­tured), the debut cap­tures the delib­er­a­tions of twelve jurors select­ed to decide the cap­i­tal mur­der case against Ohio defen­dant Mark Ducic. The pro­gram allows the audi­ence to see jurors strug­gling through the clash­es that often accom­pa­ny death penalty…

Jefferson Parish pros­e­cu­tors today dis­missed all charges against for­mer Louisiana death row inmate Ryan Matthews. He became the nation’s 115^th death row inmate to be freed accord­ing to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). Matthews was sen­tenced to die in 1999 and spent near­ly five years on death row before DNA evi­dence helped clear him of a mur­der that occurred just two weeks after his 17^th birth­day. (The U.S. Supreme Court will con­sid­er whether death sentences for…