Publications & Testimony

Darnell Williams, who was sched­uled to be exectued in Indiana on July 9, was grant­ed a com­mu­ta­tion of his death sen­tence to life with­out parole by Governor Joe Kernan. It was the first com­mu­ta­tion in a death penal­ty case in that state in 48 years. The gov­er­nor cit­ed the fact that a co-defen­dant in the case, Gregory Rouster, had received a life sen­tence, and hence it would be unfair to exe­cute Williams. (CNN​.com (AP sto­ry), July 2, 2004). See…

The July 2004 edi­tion of The American Prospect fea­tures a spe­cial sec­tion on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment with arti­cles by some of the nation’s most respect­ed experts on the top­ic. ​“Reasonable Doubts: A Special Report on the Death Penalty” exam­ines the grow­ing move­ment to reform or abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in America. Among the top­ics exam­ined are pub­lic opin­ion, inno­cence, race, and the death penal­ty for juve­niles. The series also pro­vides a clos­er look at the death penal­ty in states such as…

Following a fifth round of DNA tests, a Louisiana death row inmate has been released on bond while await­ing a new tri­al. Earlier this year, Ryan Matthews’ con­vic­tion and death sen­tence were over­turned. The recent round of DNA tests on a ski mask, which pros­e­cu­tors claimed was worn by Matthews dur­ing the crime, exclud­ed Matthews but matched the genet­ic mark­ers of anoth­er inmate. To date, no phys­i­cal evi­dence link­ing Matthews to the crime has been found. Following the lat­est round of DNA…

The U.S. Justice Department indi­cat­ed that it may no longer feel bound by extra­di­tion orders from oth­er coun­tries against the seek­ing of the death penal­ty in the U.S., a sig­nif­i­cant pol­i­cy shift that experts feel could hin­der inter­na­tion­al rela­tions. In a pre­lim­i­nary case memo by fed­er­al District Court Judge Jack Weinstein, it was not­ed that a fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tor had stat­ed that offi­cials in Washington believe a Dominican judge’s order to not seek the death penal­ty for an extra­dit­ed man is…

Eight for­mer North Carolina Supreme Court jus­tices are urg­ing the lead­er­ship of the North Carolina House of Representatives to allow a vote on leg­is­la­tion that would impose a two-year mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in the state while cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is stud­ied. Among the 8 for­mer jus­tices are Democrats and Republicans, some who sup­port the death penal­ty and oth­ers who oppose it. ​“This leg­is­la­tion is about fun­da­men­tal fair­ness, an issue that should not be con­tro­ver­sial. The recent exonerations of…

By Jace Radke <jace@​lasvegassun.​com>LAS VEGAS…

The Texas Democratic Party has adopt­ed an his­toric par­ty plat­form that con­tains a num­ber of death penal­ty reform rec­om­men­da­tions, includ­ing a call for leg­is­la­tors to enact a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, to ban the exe­cu­tion of juve­nile offend­ers and the men­tal­ly ill, and to con­sid­er adopt­ing a life with­out paroles sen­tence in Texas. More than 1,700 atten­dees at the Democratic Party’s state con­ven­tion signed a res­o­lu­tion call­ing for the mora­to­ri­um, sur­pass­ing the 30% signature…

Although Virginia jurors in the tri­al of Lee Boyd Malvo main­tained their cama­raderie dur­ing the six weeks of tri­al and delib­er­a­tions on whether he was guilty of cap­i­tal mur­der in one of a series of sniper shoot­ings, the group became sharply divid­ed when weigh­ing the ques­tion of whether to sen­tence the teen to death. The jury fore­man and a sec­ond mem­ber of the jury revealed that a core group of four jurors did not believe Malvo’s role in the mur­ders war­rant­ed the death penal­ty. They stated…

UPDATE: On June 28, 2004 the U.S. Supreme Court grant­ed Thomas Miller-El cer­tio­rari a sec­ond time (MILLER-EL v. DRETKE, No. 03 – 9659), in order to address whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5^th Circuit again erred in review­ing Miller-El’s claim that the pose­cu­tion pur­pose­ful­ly exclud­ed African Americans from his cap­i­tal jury, in vio­la­tion of Batson v. Kentucky. Arguments were heard in November 2004 and the case was decid­ed on June 13, 2005 in Miller-El’s favor.

New York’s high­est court has ruled that a pro­vi­sion of the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statute vio­lates the state con­sti­tu­tion, a deci­sion that appears to inval­i­date the sen­tences of all four men on New York’s death row. In New York, if a jury dead­locks, the judge impos­es a sen­tence of 20 – 25 years to life, giv­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. In its 4 – 3 rul­ing, the Court of Appeals said that these sen­tenc­ing rules might uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly coerce jurors into vot­ing for a death sen­tence rather than…