Publications & Testimony

An independent audit of Virginia’s central crime laboratory initiated by the present governor found that the lab had botched DNA tests in the death penalty case of Earl Washington (pictured). The finding prompted Gov. Mark Warner to order a review of 150 other criminal cases and the development of procedures to insulate the lab from outside political pressures. The audit was conducted by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors. It found that the Virginia lab’s internal review…

In the course of its research, DPIC collects relevant death penalty articles that have appeared in print and on media Web sites. Our collection certainly does not contain all such articles, nor do we claim that it represents the “best” articles. It is only a representative sample of the extensive coverage given to capital punishment in print in a particular year. For those interested in examining this coverage, we have prepared an index of the articles from 2004 in PDF format. For more…

Public support for the death penalty has dropped sharply in Houston, Texas according to the 2005 Houston Area Survey conducted by Rice University. For many years Texas has led the country in executions, and Harris County (Houston) has led all Texas counties in sending inmates to death row and in executions. But most Houston residents would prefer the sentence of life without parole rather than the death penalty for those who commit murder. Sixty-four percent chose life without parole…

In a comprehensive study covering 20 years and thousands of capital cases in Ohio, the Associated Press found that the death penalty has been applied in an uneven and often arbitrary fashion. Among the conclusions of the study that analyzed 1,936 indictments reported to the Ohio Supreme Court by counties with capital cases from October 1981 through 2002 were: Offenders facing a death penalty charge for killing a white person were twice as likely to go to death row than if they had killed a…

Chief Justice Pascal Calogero of the Louisiana Supreme Court called upon the state legislature to provide adequate funding for indigent defendants in his State of the Judiciary address. The court had earlier ruled that judges may halt prosecutions in cases where funds have not been made available for an adequate defense. The Justice concluded: As a Supreme Court Justice, I must be an advocate of compliance with the mandates of our state and federal constitutions, and therefore, I admonish you…

Many Americans are in favour of capital punishment, according to a poll by TNS released by the Washington Post and ABC News. 65 % of respondents support the death penalty for persons convicted of murder. Since 1976, 961 people have been put to death in the United States, including 17 during 2005. More than a third of all executions have taken place in the state of Texas. 12 states and the District of Columbia do not engage in capital punishment, and moratoriums on executions have been issued…

Two Puerto Rican defendants were given life sentences by the same jury that had convicted them of murder in the course of an armored truck robbery that occurred in 2002. Puerto Rico has not used the death penalty for almost 80 years and forbids the practice in its constitution. However, the U.S. federal death penalty applies to the Commonwealth. Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila said that the jury acted in accordance with Puerto Rican tradition, which “loathes and is against the death penalty.” Federal…

In a dramatic shift from 1999, citizens in New Jersey now favor life without parole over the death penatly for those who commit murder. In a Rutgers University poll released on April 28, 47% of N.J. respondents preferred life without parole rather than the death penalty. In a similar poll six years ago, 44% of respondents chose the death penalty, while 37% supported life without parole. Support for the death penalty declines even further if respondents are given the choice of life without…

Results from DNA testing may soon lead to the exoneration of Larry Peterson in New Jersey. He would become the first person in the state to be cleared of a homicide through DNA evidence. Peterson was convicted of a rape and murder that occurred in 1987. For the past 10 years, Peterson tried to have DNA evidence from his case tested. At his original trial in which he faced the possibility of a death sentence, the prosecution maintained that hairs from the crime scene belonged to Peterson. He was…