Publications & Testimony

The Supreme Court today dismissed as “improvidently granted” the case of Jose Medellin, a Mexican national on death row in Texas primarily because President Bush has interevened and ordered state courts to abide by a ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In an unsigned decision, the Justices decided not to review this case as a matter of federal habeas corpus law. They did note, however, that once this matter is reviewed in Texas state courts, the U.S. Supreme Court “would in…

SUPREME COURT DECLINES TO RULE ON RIGHTS OF FOREIGN NATIONALS ON DEATH ROW The Supreme Court today dismissed as “improvidently granted” the case of Jose Medellin, a Mexican national on death row in Texas. In an unsigned decision, justices dismissed as premature the case in which Medellin argued that an opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) entitled him and the 50 Mexican foreign nationals on death row in the United States to a hearing on whether their rights were violated under…

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has ruled that a man whose attorney slept through portions of his 1992 death penalty trial should not get a new trial because he had another less experienced attorney who remained awake. In its ruling, the Court denied George McFarland’s claim of ineffectiveness of counsel and upheld his death sentence. “We conclude that, although one of his attorneys slept through portions of his trial, applicant was not deprived of the assistance of counsel under the Sixth…

The latest Gallup Poll found support for the death penalty at 74%, a figure equal to the level in 2003 and less than the 80% support registered in 1994. The poll found that support for capital punishment dropped to 56% when respondents were given the alternative sentencing option of life without parole, less than the 61% support in 1997 with the same question. The percentage of respondents who believe an innocent person has been executed in recent years has dropped from 73% in 2003 to 59% this…

A diverse and bipartisan group of more than 150 prominent North Carolinians have urged the General Assembly to pass a measure that would halt executions for two years while a study commission examines the state’s capital punishment system. A letter to the state’s top political leaders urging passage of the moratorium bill was signed by the group, which included nine former North Carolina Supreme Court Justices, former prosecutors, elected officials, religious leaders, business leaders, murder…

A new study from the Texas Defender Service calls for substantial changes in the way Texas handles capital murder cases. The report recommends that Texas implement a series of reforms, including uniform investigation procedures, a life-without-parole sentencing option, and a statewide public defender’s office. Drawing from recommendations made by the blue-ribbon Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment that was established to address wrongful convictions in that state, the Texas Defender…

A new research paper by Wayne A. Logan of the William Mitchell College of Law examines the constitutional, ethical and legal issues raised by victim impact evidence. In his article, “Victims, Survivors and the Decisions to Seek and Impose Death,” Logan notes that the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1991 decision in Payne v. Tennessee opened the door for survivors of murder victims to testify about the social, emotional, and economic losses resulting from the murder of their loved one. Since this…

Justice Flemming L. Norcott Jr. of the Supreme Court of Connecticut dissented from the Court’s refusal to stay the execution of Michael Ross, the first person to be executed in New England in over 40 years: This case illustrates, however, the sheer irrationality of the capital punishment system because this defendant’s election to forgo further appeals or collateral relief, a decision that in any other context would lend some economy to the proceedings, has in fact spawned seemingly endless…