Publications & Testimony

Items: 5761 — 5770

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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Jul 26, 2004

DPIC Presents 2004 Thurgood Marshall Journalism Awards

The Death Penalty Information Center hon­ored jour­nal­ists and pro­duc­ers from the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times Magazine, Frontline, Sound Portraits Productions, and inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ist Alan Berlow dur­ing its 8th Annual Thurgood Marshall Journalism Awards at the National Press Club on Monday, July 26. The awards hon­or those jour­nal­ists who have made an excep­tion­al con­tri­bu­tion to the under­stand­ing of prob­lems asso­ci­at­ed with cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Award-win­ning human rights attorney…

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