Publications & Testimony

A Georgia Superior Court overturned the murder conviction of death row inmate Willie Palmer after finding that prosecutors hid a $500 payoff to the state’s key trial witness, an act the judge said was “in defiance of (the state’s) legal and ethical duties.” The judge also threw out Palmer’s death sentence on the grounds that his trial lawyer failed to investigate and present evidence of Palmer’s mental retardation. In his opinion, the judge noted that prosecutors “intentionally hid” a deal…

In the most comprehensive examination of a statute in the history of the New York State Legislature, state lawmakers released a report highlighting the testimony of 170 witnesses at five statewide hearings on the state’s death penalty law. The report, issued by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver along with the Chairs of the Committees on Codes, the Judiciary and Correction, is a thorough examination of the statute and its troubled history. “We have spent more than $170 million administering the…

During his 26 years as leader of the Roman Catholic Church, the late Pope John Paul II frequently called for an end to the death penalty. Among his statements on this issue were the following: “May the death penalty, an unworthy punishment still used in some countries, be abolished throughout the world.” (Prayer at the Papal Mass at Regina Coeli Prison in Rome, July 9, 2000). “A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the…

As two men convicted of capital murder under the federal death penalty statute await their sentencing on April 11, Puerto Rican Governor Anibal Acevedo and the Association of American Jurists, a non-governmental organization acting as a consultant at the United Nations, protested the use of the death penalty in Puerto Rico. Though Puerto Rico’s Constitution prohibits the death penalty and its residents have consistently voiced strong opposition to it, residents who commit a federal capital…

The Following Newspapers Published Editorials Supporting the Abolition of the Juvenile Death Penalty: American Medical News Arizona Daily Star Baltimore Sun Battleboro (Vermont) Reformer The Birmingham (AL) News Casper (WY) Star Tribune The Chicago Sun-Times Concorde (NH) Monitor The Daily Targum (Rutgers Univ.) Dallas Morning News Daytona Beach News-Journal Decatur Daily Denver Post Detroit Free Press Greensboro (NC) News and Record The Honolulu (HI) Advertiser The Journal Sentinel…

A series of public opinion polls conducted in the years leading up to the U.S. Supreme Court’s abolition of the juvenile death penalty showed that only about a third of Americans supported the use of capital punishment against those who were younger than 18 years old at the time of their crime. The survey results included the following: A fall 2001 National Opinion Research Center poll found that while 62% of respondents favored the death penalty in general, only 34% supported the execution of…

Op-Eds are listed in chronological order, with links to the articles below: Julie Baxter, Even teen killers should be allowed to live to regret it, The Coloradoan, July 21, 2004 Vivian Berger, Stop executing minors, National Law Journal, April 26, 2004 Jeffrey P. Brosco, Florida Ought Not Execute Young Offenders, Tampa (FL) Tribune, April 15, 2004 Sheila S. Hopkins, It’s time to put a legal end to juvenile execution, Tallahassee Democrat, April 12, 2004 Rosalynn Carter, No death penalty for…

A two-year study of 11 wrongful conviction cases in Virginia found that mistaken eyewitness identification is the major reason innocent people have been convicted in the state. The report’s recommendations note that Virginia could dramatically reduce the number of wrongful convictions through a series of reforms, such as changing a variety of police procedures, relaxing the state’s 21-day rule to allow evidence of innocence to be considered beyond this time restriction, ensuring that…

Recently, various victims and relatives of victims have testified before state legislatures concerning the death penalty. In Connecticut, a woman who had been attacked by convicted murderer Michael Ross, testified that she nevertheless opposes his execution. And in North Carolina, the sister of a man who was murdered in 2003 urged state legislators to reconsider the death penalty. Vivian Dobson, who was attacked by Ross in 1983, said that the death penalty re-traumatizes victims’ family…

Bill Pelke tells of the life-altering transformation that occurred after his 78-year-old grandmother was murdered by four teen-aged girls in his book, Journey of Hope…From Violence to Healing. Though at first he supported the death penalty for 15-year-old Paula Cooper, one of the young girls who had murdered his grandmother in her home for $10 and an old car, he later opposed her execution and successfully fought to have Cooper’s death sentence overturned. The book follows his personal journey…