Publications & Testimony

Governors Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming have signed into state law bipar­ti­san leg­is­la­tion ban­ning the exe­cu­tion of those who were under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes. Of the 38 death penal­ty states, 19 for­bid the death penal­ty for juve­niles. The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment also for­bids the prac­tice. Twelve addi­tion­al states do not allow the death penal­ty at all. The U.S. Supreme Court will consider the…

In response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent rever­sal of Delma Banks’ death sen­tence in Texas because of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, the Dallas Morning News has called for a halt to exe­cu­tions while state offi­cials review serious problems…

In a recent study exam­in­ing death sen­tenc­ing trends around the coun­try, researchers report­ed sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ences between the rates at which black defen­dants who kill white vic­tims are sen­tenced to death, as com­pared to the rate at which black defen­dants who kill black vic­tims are sen­tenced to death. In every one of the sev­en states for which data was avail­able, blacks who kill whites were far more like­ly to receive a death sen­tence than blacks who…

Kentucky…

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper is call­ing on pros­e­cu­tors to open their files to defense attor­neys in first-degree mur­der cas­es to avoid wrong­ful con­vic­tions like that of for­mer death row inmate Alan Gell, who was exon­er­at­ed and freed in February. Cooper called Gell’s first tri­al a​“trav­es­ty” and stat­ed that the pros­e­cu­tors com­mit­ted​“inex­cus­able neglect” in their han­dling of the trial. ​“The orig­i­nal pros­e­cu­tors in this case owe everyone an…

Psychiatric TimesMarch 2004 Vol. XXI Issue 3 Condemned Prisoner Treated and ExecutedCommentary by Alan A. Stone, M.D. On Jan. 6, the state of Arkansas exe­cut­ed Charles Singleton by lethal injec­tion. His death went unno­ticed by the nation­al media, but it will be remem­bered and dis­cussed in the years ahead by med­ical ethi­cists and every­one else inter­est­ed in the inter­sec­tions of human rights, psy­chi­a­try and law.Singleton by all…

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“Debating the Death Penalty: Should America Have Capital Punishment?,” a new book edit­ed by Hugo Bedau and Paul Cassell, brings togeth­er judges, lawyers, pros­e­cu­tors and philoso­phers to debate the death penal­ty in a spir­it of open inquiry and exchange. The book dis­cuss­es issues such as deter­rence, inno­cence, life in prison with­out parole, and race. In addi­tion to the edi­tors, those who have…

Wyoming leg­is­la­tors in both the House and Senate have passed a mea­sure to ban the death penal­ty for those who are under 18 at the time of their crime, mark­ing the sec­ond time in one week that a leg­isla­tive body in the United States has passed a ban on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for juve­nile offend­ers. The bill now goes to Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal for his sig­na­ture to become law. (Feb. 27, 2004). Earlier in the week, South Dakota’s leg­is­la­ture vot­ed to outlaw the…

Shortly before the sched­uled 6 p.m. exe­cu­tion of Hung Thanh Le, a Vietnamese for­eign nation­al on Oklahoma’s death row, Governor Brad Henry grant­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion in def­er­ence to Vietnamese offi­cials who request­ed more time to review Le’s file. Le, who suf­fers from post-trau­­mat­ic stress dis­or­der result­ing from flee­ing Vietnam, was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed despite a unan­i­mous rec­om­men­da­tion for clemen­cy from the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. More than 1,700…