Publications & Testimony

A recent San Francisco magazine article entitled “Innocence Lost,” examines California’s record of wrongful convictions. The researchers report that the nation’s largest criminal justice system has sent more innocent people to prison for longer terms than any other state. Among the exonerees are three from the state’s death row and nearly 200 people who were serving either life or very long terms. The magazine notes that despite these numbers, state lawmakers have repeatedly passed up…

The FBI recently released its Uniform Crime Report for 2003. The number of murders in the United States increased slightly from 16,229 to 16,503. Once again, the South had the highest murder rate (6.9 murders per 100,000 people). In 2003, the South carried out 89% of the executions in the country. The Northeast had the lowest murder rate in the country (4.2 murders per 100,000 people) and carried out no executions in 2003. (2003 FBI Uniform Crime Report, October 27, 2004 (execution numbers from…

President Bush signed into law the Justice for All Act (H.R.5107) that includes a version of the Innocence Protection Act. The bill was co-sponsored by Senators Patrick Leahy (D‑Vt.) and Orrin Hatch (R.-Ut.). It will create a post-conviction testing process to protect innocent defendants and provide training funds for the defense and prosecution in death penalty cases. (Salt Lake Tribune, Nov. 2, 2004). See the Justice Project for more details on the law.

Dominique Green was executed in Texas on October 26 despite calls for a stay from a federal judge, Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, and the victim’s family. A U.S. District Court judge in Houston had postponed the execution until the city’s police department could complete cataloging 280 boxes of recently discovered evidence that could impact thousands of criminal cases. That stay was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Green had admitted that he was present…

According to an Iranian justice department spokesperson, the Iranian Parliament is expected to approve legislation that would end the death penalty for offenders under the age of 18. The measure would also prohibit lashings for those under 18. Under pressure from the European Union to reform its human rights record, Iran has had no recorded stonings since late 2002, and the parliament has enacted laws banning torture and the upholding of citizens’ rights. (AFP, October 26, 2004). The U.S.

Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the Catholic Archbishop of Washington and acting as Chairman of the Domestic Policy Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has urged House and Senate conferees working on anti-terrorism legislation to report out a final bill that would not expand the federal death penalty for terrorists. McCarrick wrote a letter to House and Senate leaders crafting their final version of the National Intelligence Reform Act (S. 2845). The House version of…

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 with resistance from county residents, 50% of whom oppose capital…

During a recent speech at Georgetown Law School, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor emphasized the growing importance of international law in U.S. courts, saying judges would be negligent if they disregarded its importance in a post-September 11^th world of heightened tensions. O’Connor said the Supreme Court is taking cases that demand a better understanding of foreign legal systems, noting, “International law is no longer a specialty. … It is vital if judges are to faithfully…