Publications & Testimony

The Washington Post has conducted further research into the clemency memos prepared by U.S. Attorney General nominee Alberto R. Gonzales, who served as lead counsel to then-Governor George W. Bush in Texas. Gonzales crafted 62 memos regarding clemency requests from Texas death row inmates, and several Texas attorneys have voiced their criticisms that the clemency memos contained incomplete and unfair summaries of evidence and mitigating circumstances. The memos, first reviewed in 2003 by…

The book In Sweet Company: Conversations With Extraordinary Women About Living a Spiritual Life by Margaret Wolff features Sister Helen Prejean as one of 14 women whose spiritual beliefs have served as the compass for their decision-making and life’s work. Prejean, author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book “Dead Man Walking” and the newly released “The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions,” has been an advisor to those on death row and an advocate against the death…

In her new book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, Sister Helen Prejean uses her personal experiences as a counselor to those on death row to explore the issue of innocence and the likelihood of executing a wrongly convicted person. The book also traces the historical and legal underpinnings of the death penalty in the U.S. Prejean, who authored the #1 New York Times bestseller “Dead Man Walking,” begins her new book by focusing on the cases of Joseph Roger…

Juveniles and the Mentally Disabled More Likely to Give False Confessions Studies and surveys have found that both minors and the mentally impaired are more likely to make false confessions, in part because they are more vulnerable to suggestion. A recent study conducted by Northwestern University law professor Steve Drizin and UC Irvine criminologist Richard Leo examined 125 cases in which individuals were exonerated after giving false confessions. The researchers found that 32% of the cases…

Autopsies of Executed Inmates by State Medical Examiners Reveal Probability of Botched Procedures An autopsy of the last man executed in Kentucky, Edward L. Harper, found only 3 to 6.5 milligrams per liter of barbiturate in Harper’s blood — a level leaving a high chance that Harper was conscious throughout the execution and that he felt pain when he was injected with subsequent drugs that paralyzed and suffocated him, and then stopped his heart. Dr. Mark Dershwitz, the prosecution expert who…

Poll Finds Tepid Support for Death Penalty as State Sets Execution Date As Maryland Circuit Court Judge Steven I. Platt signed a death warrant scheduling the execution of Heath W. Burch for the week of December 6, a Potomac Inc. poll of state residents revealed that only 53% support capital punishment. Burch has been on death row since 1996 and would be the first person since 1953 to be executed for a crime committed in Prince George’s County. Experts predict that his execution would be met…

North Carolina Preparing to Execute Mentally Ill Man Sammy Perkins is scheduled for execution in North Carolina on October 8, despite his mental illness and the fact that the jurors at his trial did not learn the extent of his disability. According to a press release from Perkins’s attorneys: “The jury never heard the full story of Sammy Perkins’ mental disorder: A family history of psychiatric problems left its mark on Sammy Perkins. Several family members suffered from mental illnesses. In…

ACLU Report on International Implications of Capital Punishment in the U.S. A new report by the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project discusses the United States’ position on the death penalty in the face of international concerns regarding this practice. The report, How the Death Penalty Weakens U.S. International Interests, notes that many other nations are moving toward abolition of capital punishment and are critical of specific aspects of the death penalty in the U.S. Among the topics…

Groups Issue Report on Women Facing Execution (Note: Dec. 1 execution of Frances Newton was stayed by the governor.) As Texas plans to carry out the scheduled execution of Frances Newton on December 1, a new report documenting the results of a national survey of women currently on death row found that many women have been subjected to harsh living conditions and that most were sentenced for the murder of someone they knew. The report, The Forgotten Population: A Look at Death Row in the United…