Publications & Testimony

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…

Article Examines Statistical Models of Measuring Deterrence In the July 2004 Skeptical Enquirer, Rutgers Sociology professor Ted Goertzel examines the methods — and the variant results that emerge — used in studying the deterrent effect of executions on homicide. Read the article here. Scientific American Looks at Crime Rates In his Scientific American magazine article entitled, “The Case of the Unsolved Crime Decline,” criminologist Richard Rosenfeld examines why U.S. crime rates dropped more…

Kansas Death Penalty Advisory Committee Releases Report A recent report issued by the Kansas Judicial Council Death Penalty Advisory Committee examines the state’s application of capital punishment and the hefty price tag of seeking the death penalty. The Committee found that since Kansas reinstated the death penalty in 1994 there were 44 potential capital cases involving minority victims. However, none of these cases resulted in a death sentence. Of the eight defendants in Kansas who did…

Broken System: Error Found in Three-Quarters of New Jersey Death Cases Of the 63 death sentences handed down since New Jersey reinstated capital punishment in 1982, 47 have been overturned, including that of Robert Marshall, whose death sentence was reversed on April 8^th by a federal court. Marshall had been on New Jersey’s death row longer than any other inmate prior to the vacating of his sentence. New Jersey has not carried out an execution since bringing back the death penalty. It currently…

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 featured in this resource are the ongoing international efforts to abolish the death…

The December 2004 issue of the American Psychological Association Journal, Psychology, Public Policy, & Law, contains articles devoted to important and emerging topics related to capital punishment. Craig Haney, Richard Wiener, James Acker, and Charles Lanier are among the issue’s contributing writers who provide expert analysis in areas such as capital sentencing, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision-making, public opinion, victim impact statements, moratorium efforts, innocence, and other…

The Death Penalty Information Center’s 2004 Year End Report noting the declines in death sentences, executions, and the number of people on death row was covered by about 200 news outlets throughout the U.S. and overseas. Some newspapers took the occasion to editorialize about the state of the death penalty: Detroit Free Press The death penalty, thankfully, is making its own slow demise in the United States. Given the legal, moral and economic problems with the death penalty, all 38 states…

Capital Consequences: Families of the Condemned Tell Their Stories is a new book by Rachel King of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project. The book focuses on the impact that the death penalty has on the families of those who have been condemned to die. King, who also wrote “Don’t Kill in Our Names: Families of Murder Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty,” describes these individuals as the unseen victims of capital punishment and highlights the experience of having loved ones on death…

A&E television host and well-known investigative journalist Bill Kurtis chronicles his journey from death penalty supporter to capital punishment opponent in his newly released book, The Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in American Justice. In an interview with the Kansas City Star, Kurtis stated, “Look, I was for the death penalty, but looking at these cases and the rapidly increasing number of exonerations, there are just too many possibilities for error.” He went on to observe, “You have a…

Premeditated: Meditations on Capital Punishment, Recent Works by Malaquias Montoya is a new art exhibition catalogue featuring recently created silkscreen images, paintings, and related research dealing with the death penalty and prisons. The works featured in this book are part of a collection of art that is currently touring the United States. Montoya has lectured and taught at numerous universities and colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Stanford, UC Berkeley and UC Davis.