Publications & Testimony

Items: 5761 — 5770

Jul 30, 2004

Crime, Culpability and the Adolescent Brain

By Mary Beckmanwww​.sci​encemag​.orgCrime, Culpability and the Adolescent BrainThis fall, the U.S. Supreme Court will con­sid­er whether cap­i­tal crimes by teenagers under 18 should get the death sen­tence; the case for lenien­cy is based in part on brain studies.When he was 17 years old, Christopher Simmons per­suad­ed a younger friend to help him rob a woman, tie her up with elec­tri­cal cable and duct tape, and throw her over a bridge. He was…

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Jul 29, 2004

NEW VOICES: Texas DA Sees ​“Beginning of the End of the Death Penalty”

In Texas, Jefferson County District Attorney Tom Maness recent­ly not­ed that the time-con­sum­ing and cost­ly nature of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment may lead to its demise. ​“I think this is the begin­ning of the end of the death penal­ty,” said Maness after a Criminal District Court Judge rec­om­mend­ed that the Court of Criminal Appeals com­mute the death sen­tence of Walter Bell to life in prison. On three occas­sions, Jefferson County spent count­less hours of work and hun­dreds of thou­sands of dollars to…

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Jul 28, 2004

NEW RESOURCE: Study Identifies Flaws in Recent Deterrence Research

A new study con­duct­ed by Professor Richard Berk of the UCLA Department of Statistics has iden­ti­fied sig­nif­i­cant sta­tis­ti­cal prob­lems with the data analy­sis used to sup­port recent stud­ies claim­ing to show that exe­cu­tions deter crime in the United States. In ​“New Claims about Executions and General Deterrence: Deja Vu All Over Again?,” Professor Berk address­es the prob­lem of ​“influ­ence,” which occurs when a very small and atyp­i­cal frac­tion of the avail­able data dom­i­nates the statistical results…

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Jul 27, 2004

New York Legislators Put Off Attempts to Fix State’s Death Penalty Law

Despite efforts by some state lead­ers to quick­ly ​“fix” the state’s death penal­ty stat­ue, oppo­si­tion from many leg­is­la­tors halt­ed attempts to pass a bill before the sum­mer recess at the end of July. At a leg­isla­tive con­fer­ence on the issue, Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry not­ed that ​“a lot of peo­ple who spoke were against it.” These sen­ti­ments prompt­ed Majority Leader Paul Tokasz to announce that leg­is­la­tors were ​“going to take some time with it” before decid­ing how to address con­cerns raised by…

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Jul 26, 2004

Deadline Premiers on NBC’s Dateline; Supreme Court Accepts Amicus Briefs in Roper v Simmons

U.S. SUPREME COURT: AMICUS BRIEFS FILED IN LANDMARK CASEOn July 19, 2004, ami­cus briefs in sup­port of end­ing the exe­cu­tion of juve­nile offend­ers were filed in Roper v. Simmons (No. 03 – 0633) that will decide whether the exe­cu­tion of juve­nile defen­dants is a vio­la­tion of the Eighth Ammendment. In addi­tion to the defen­dan­t’s brief, ami­cus briefs were sub­mit­ted by such nota­bles as President Jimmy Carter, the American Medical Association, the European Union, and the U. S. Conference…

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