Publications & Testimony

A retired prison warden, victims’ family members, and a former death row inmate were among the nearly 75 speakers at a state Judiciary Committee hearing in Hartford, almost all of whom proposed ending Connecticut’s death penalty. Many of the witnesses noted that the death penalty brings no relief to victims’ family members, fails to deter murder, risks innocent lives, and is applied in an arbitrary way. ​“I’m here to tell you that I never met an inmate for whom I had no hope,” said Mary Morgan…

DPIC has added a new easy-to-use state database of death penalty information to its Web site. In addition, Richard Dieter’s (DPIC’s Executive Director) testimony before the New York State Assembly Standing Committees on Codes, Judiciary, and Correction regarding the costs of the death penalty is also available. The Committees are holding hearings on whether New York should re-instate the death penalty. To access information on any state’s death row population, the number of exonerations…

Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5^th Circuit called on Texas to pay more than ​‘lip service’ to providing individuals facing the death penalty with a truly fair and constitutional trial. He stated that more resources must be placed on training attorneys and judges at the trial level in order to protect against executing the innocent. Higginbotham, writing along with attorney Mark Curriden of Vinson & Elkins, noted that during the past three years, the U.S. Supreme…

A federal appeals court has ruled that Ohio must either retry British foreign national Kenny Richey within 90 days or free him from death row. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6^th Circuit threw out Richey’s 1987 conviction and death sentence in the arson death of 2‑year-old Cynthia Collins, ruling that prosecutors failed to offer sufficient evidence of Richey’s guilt. The court also found that his court-appointed attorney was ​“outside the wide range of professionally competent assistance”…

Former Illinois death row inmate Steven Manning (pictured) has been awarded $6.6 million in a civil lawsuit against two FBI agents. A jury found that the agents had framed Manning twice, including once for murder. The jury found FBI agents Robert Buchan and Gary Miller liable of concocting evidence to frame Manning, their one-time informant and a former Chicago police officer, in the murder of a trucking firm executive and in the kidnapping of two Missouri drug dealers. Manning’s attorney, Jon…

New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver voiced serious doubts about the necessity for capital punishment in light of its high cost and the alternative sentencing option of life without parole. Silver, who supported the death penalty in the past, said: ​“I have some doubt whether we need a death penalty…. We are spending tens of millions of dollars [that] may be better spent on educating children.” He also remarked that the life-without-parole statute the state now has in place ensures that…

On Thursday, January 27, a movie based on the acclaimed play ​“The Exonerated” will air on Court TV at 9 p.m. EST. The movie features award-winning actors Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Aidan Quinn, Brian Dennehy, Delroy Lindo, and David Brown, Jr. giving voice to the troubling stories of six persons originally condemned to death but who have since been freed from death row. It follows the original theater script by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen. For more information, see ​“The Exonerated” on…

A three-part series appearing in the Cleveland Plain Dealer examines the capital conviction of John Spirko, who remains on Ohio’s death row for the 1982 murder of Elgin, Ohio postmaster Betty Jane Mottinger. The paper’s investigation found that Spirko’s imagination and ​“not much else” had brought him to the brink of execution despite concerns of his innocence. Shortly after Mottinger’s body was found, Spirko voluntarily contacted police to provide information about the murder. According to the…

Testimony of DPIC Executive Director Richard Dieter before the New York State Assembly Standing Committees on Codes, Judiciary, and Correction on Costs of the Death Penalty and Related Issues (January 25, 2005)