Publications & Testimony

In Alameda County, California, pros­e­cu­tors announced that they will not seek the death penal­ty against Richard Dean Wilson because it is unlike­ly that a jury would return a death sen­tence. State authories say the deci­sion to seek a life sen­tence for Wilson avoids a cost­ly death penal­ty case and saves tax­pay­er dol­lars from financ­ing a lengthy tri­al with an uncer­tain out­come. Wilson plead­ed no con­test to the mur­der of Angela Marie Bledsoe. Prosecutor Jim Anderson not­ed, ​“This was the best…

The California Supreme Court is ask­ing the state’s attor­ney gen­er­al’s office to explain why Fred Freeman’s death sen­tence should not be reversed on alle­ga­tions that a now-deceased Superior Court Judge col­lud­ed with pros­e­cu­tors to ensure a cap­i­tal con­vic­tion by elim­i­nat­ing poten­tial Jewish jurors. The Supreme Court issued the show cause order after Freeman’s attor­neys filed a claim stat­ing that Freeman was denied a fair tri­al because Judge Stanley Golde alleged­ly told prosecutors to…

Friday, July 30, 2004: VOL 305 30 JULY 2004 599 CREDIT:…

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…

The Philadelphia…

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…

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…

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…

Baltimore Sun July 27, 2004International…

Baltimore…