Publications & Testimony

Items: 5871 — 5880

Apr 23, 2004

NEW RESOURCE: The Problem of False Confessions in a Post-DNA World

“The Problem of False Confessions in a Post-DNA World,” a recent study pub­lished in the North Carolina Law Review, found that juve­nile offend­ers were involved in 33% of the cas­es where the defen­dant con­fessed to a crime that he or she did not com­mit. Ninety-two per­cent of the cas­es involved false con­fes­sions from indi­vid­u­als under the age of 40, and more than half were under the age of 25. According to the study’s authors, law pro­fes­sors Richard Leo of the University…

Read More

Apr 22, 2004

U.N. Human Rights Commission Calls for International Death Penalty Moratorium

By a vote of 29 – 19, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights passed a res­o­lu­tion call­ing on all nations to declare a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. The res­o­lu­tion cit­ed con­cerns about the fair­ness and accu­ra­cy of the death penal­ty. In order to address these prob­lems, the res­o­lu­tion calls on nations that no longer use the death penal­ty to remove it from their laws, and for coun­tries that con­tin­ue to car­ry out exe­cu­tions to lim­it the num­ber of crimes that may be pun­ished by death. The…

Read More

Apr 21, 2004

NEW RESOURCES: Study Examines the Scope of Mistakes in Criminal Cases

Researchers at the University of Michigan iden­ti­fied 328 crim­i­nal cas­es, includ­ing 73 death penal­ty cas­es, over the last 15 years in which the defen­dant was ulti­mate­ly exon­er­at­ed. The study sug­gest­ed that many more inno­cent peo­ple are in prison today. Most of the cas­es stud­ied involved mur­der and rape, crimes that are sub­ject­ed to the most intense police inves­ti­ga­tion but that can also pro­vide defen­dants with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to prove their inno­cence based on DNA evi­dence. Of the 328 cases of…

Read More

Apr 14, 2004

Supreme Court To Consider Applicability of Prior Ruling to Over 100 Death Row Inmates

On Monday, April 19, the United States Supreme Court will hear argu­ments in the case of Schriro v. Summerlin that will deter­mine whether a pri­or deci­sion applies only to some death row inmates in the first stage of their appeals or to all inmates in the affect­ed states. In 2002, the Court held in Ring v. Arizona that juries, not judges, must decide who is eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty. The new rul­ing could affect over 100 death row inmates in at least 5 states. At the conclusion of…

Read More