Publications & Testimony

Nancy Filiault, whose sister was murdered in 2000, testified that she opposes capital punishment because the legal process further traumatizes victims’ families. At the conclusion of a Judiciary Committee hearing on legislation introduced to replace Connecticut’s death penalty with a life-without-parole sentence, Filiault said that sitting through the capital trial of the man charged with the murder was ​“heinous, incredibly cruel, and traumatizing.” The defendant, who confessed to the crime…

A record 110 persons aged 60 and older were on death rows across the United States at the end of 2003, a number that is nearly triple the 39 death row seniors counted nine years ago by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, according to an article in USA Today. In many states, elderly prisoners who are not on death row are housed in geriatric facilities within prisons or they are placed in ​“end of life” programs, but these programs are not offered to seniors facing the death penalty. The condemned…

During his recent State of the Union address before Congress, President George W. Bush raised concerns about race, wrongful convictions, and adequate representation for those facing the death penalty: Because one of the main sources of our national unity is our belief in equal justice, we need to make sure Americans of all races and backgrounds have confidence in the system that provides justice. In America we must make doubly sure no person is held to account for a crime he or she did not…

Key members of the New York Legislature who supported the death penalty when it was reinstated in 1995 have changed their positions and now favor letting the law expire. Joseph Lentol, Chair of the Codes Committee of the N.Y. Assembly, says he now supports life without parole instead of restoring the death penalty for which he voted in 1995. His announcement came at the conclusion of hearings into the issue. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver stated that he will not be pressured into having the…

Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney joined a lengthy list of high-profile New Yorkers testifying that they oppose reinstatement of New York’s death penalty. During a legislative hearing in Albany, Carney testified that New York would be best served by abandoning capital punishment and sentencing offenders to life without the possibility of parole. He cited the high costs of the death penalty and the special protections that would need to be put in place. (Albany Times-Union…

Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Robert Mulligan recently overturned Laurence Adams’ conviction for a 1972 murder of a transit worker because police had withheld critical evidence. Adams had been convicted and sentenced to death in 1974 based on the testimony of two witnesses who had unrelated charges dropped following the trial. The government’s key witness testified that Adams had admitted to the offense in a discussion in a private home, but subsequently discovered records indicated that…

Though he has spent more than a decade in mental hospitals and his trial was postponed for 18 years due to questions regarding his sanity, Sherman Noble was recently sentenced to death in Kentucky after serving as his own defense counsel. In 1988, Noble was declared incompetent to stand trial and was placed in a mental hospital for further evaluation and treatment. He was later declared competent in 1997. Noble attempted suicide on the day of his sentencing and appeared in court in a…

Kenneth W. Starr, a former federal judge and U.S. Solicitor General, recently represented Virginia death row inmate Robin Lovitt before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4^th Circuit. Though he supports capital punishment, Starr stated that ​“the death penalty has to be administered with the utmost caution and reserved for the gravest offenses. This is not that kind of case. Robin Lovitt maintains his innocence, and evidence that might prove his innocence has been destroyed. I’m very distressed…

Priscilla Joyce Ford, who suffered from a variety of mental illnesses and who was the lone woman on Nevada’s death row for more than twenty years, died of apparent complications from emphysema on January 29, 2005. A prison spokesman said, ​“She had been quiet for so long. No one ever had any problems with her (in prison). I don’t remember hearing about her violating any rules.” Ford was sentenced to death row after she was convicted of killing 6 people and injuring 23 others by driving her car…

A recent study of 18 juvenile offenders on death row in Texas found that nearly all participants experienced serious head traumas in childhood and adolescence, came from extremely violent and/​or abusive families, had one or more severe mental illnesses, and had signs of prefrontal brain dysfunction. The study, conducted by Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis of Yale along with other experts, suggests that most of the juvenile offenders on America’s death rows suffer from serious conditions which…