Publications & Testimony

Unlike offi­cials in some states who dis­missed a recent rul­ing from the International Court of Justice, U.S. President George W. Bush gave cre­dence to the deci­sion by call­ing Mexican President Vincente Fox on Tuesday to dis­cuss the rul­ing and pos­si­ble next steps regard­ing 51 Mexican for­eign nation­als on death row in the U.S. In its rul­ing, the World Court ordered the United States to review the con­vic­tions and sen­tences of 49 Mexican for­eign nation­als to determine…

Portsmouth…

A fed­er­al court has ordered a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing for Robert Marshall after deter­min­ing that his tri­al attor­ney failed to ade­quate­ly rep­re­sent him at his 1986 tri­al. In its rul­ing, the court not­ed:​“This is not a case where, after rea­son­able inves­ti­ga­tion, Zeitz (the attor­ney) deter­mined that it was tac­ti­cal­ly a bet­ter choice not to put on a mit­i­gat­ing case. Rather, it is a sit­u­a­tion where Zeitz inad­e­quate­ly pre­pared for the penal­ty phase and put…

Shreveport…

In a recent opin­ion piece pub­lished in The Miami Herald, for­mer First Lady Rosalynn Carter called on Florida and oth­er states that con­tin­ue to sen­tence juve­nile offend­ers to death to aban­don the prac­tice, not­ing that it​“vio­lates cur­rent prin­ci­ples of American jus­tice.” Carter stat­ed that America could soon be the last nation on Earth to exe­cute juve­nile offend­ers, and that the U.S. is one of only two nations that have not rat­i­fied the United Nations…

Tallahassee…

Orlando…

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An Associated Press analy­sis of the 334 cap­i­tal indict­ments filed in Franklin County, Ohio, found that only 16 (5%) of the cas­es end­ed with a death sen­tence. Of those sen­tences, two have been reduced to life in prison with­out parole, one man died on the row, and two men were exe­cut­ed this year. Research shows that of the remain­ing Franklin County cas­es, 183 cas­es (55%) end­ed in plea agree­ments, and in 111 cas­es (33%) juries or three-judge pan­els convicted the…

About half of Pennsylvania’s death row of 240 inmates comes from Philadelphia. Yet in the 11 years that the Defender Association of Philadelphia has been han­dling cap­i­tal cas­es, not one of their clients has been sen­tenced to death. The Defender Office han­dles one of every five cap­i­tal cas­es in the city. The dif­fer­ence between life and death appears to rest with the qual­i­ty of rep­re­sen­ta­tion and often comes down to dol­lar and cents.​“What is going on in…