Publications & Testimony

Attorney Barry Scheck plans to ask Texas Governor Rick Perry to order DNA testing in the case of Claude Jones, who maintained his innocence until his execution in December 2000. Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, says Jones’ conviction was largely based on dubious evidence. The state’s case against him included testimony from an accomplice linking Jones to the crime and the report of a state forensic scientist who examined a one-inch length of hair found at the crime scene. The…

A Franklin County, Kentucky, court will hear arguments beginning April 18 to determine whether the state’s lethal injection procedures rise to the level of cruelty that is forbidden by the U.S. and state constitutions. In November 2004, the same court cited questions about the lethal injection process when it issued a stay of execution for Thomas Clyde Bowling, Jr. just days before his scheduled execution. Attorneys for Bowling and death row inmate Ralph Baze, who is also a plaintiff in the…

In separate plea agreements with the federal government and Georgia prosecutors, Eric Rudolph admitted killing two people and injuring 150 others by carrying out a series bombings at a gay nightclub, abortion clinics, and the 1996 Olympics, and will serve four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors spared Rudolph from execution in exchange for his guilty pleas and his revealing the location of about 250 pounds of dynamite he had hidden in the North Carolina…

The Codes Committee of the New York Assembly has voted 11 – 7 against considering legislation to re-instate the death penalty in New York, a decision that likely ends such efforts during this legislative term. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has recently voiced concerns about the death penalty and has shifted his stance away from supporting capital punishment. New York’s current death penalty law was passed in 1995 but declared invalid by a ruling from the state’s highest court last year. While…

Veteran New York legislator John R. Dunne voted for the death penalty 12 times during his tenure in the New York Senate. He then went on to serve as an assistant attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice. But his concerns about the fairness and accuracy of capital punishment have now resulted in his opposition to the death penalty. In an op-ed appearing in the New York Daily News, Dunne wrote: As a member of the New York Senate from 1966 to 1989, I voted 12 times to establish the…

The new president of Iraq, Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani (pictured), recently voiced his concerns about the death penalty, even for those accused of war crimes like Saddam Hussein. “I am among the lawyers who signed an international petition against the death penalty in the world and it would be [a] problem for me if Iraqi courts issued death sentences,” Talabini said when asked about the fate of Hussein, who is in U.S. custody in Iraq awaiting trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Death Penalty Information Center has expanded the resources related to its award-winning Educational Curriculum on the Death Penalty. We now offer a listserv for educators who teach about capital punishment, free teacher training workshops, and free brochures for distribution to schools and teachers. Launched in 2000, DPIC’s Educational Curriculum is a balanced Internet-based classroom tool that offers flexible lesson plans, teacher overviews, separate teacher and student curriculum Web…

For Florida prisoners, including death row inmates, who were convicted before DNA evidence was routinely tested, the state-imposed October 1 deadline to submit new claims is fast approaching. After that date, evidence may be destroyed and the chance for an exoneration extinguished. Yet the system is seriously backlogged and under-resourced. Noting that Governor Jeb Bush recently stated that any court in Florida or elsewhere would “immediately” review a prisoner’s claim of DNA evidence…

Legislation that would allow those convicted of capital murder to be sentenced to life in prison without parole recently failed to win a key procedural vote in the Texas Senate, largely because of opposition from prosecutors and pro-death penalty organizations who said it would result in fewer death sentences. Although supported by a strong majority of the senators and the people of Texas, the bill needed a 2/3 majority in order to be debated. The Senate’s failure to pass the bill means that…