Publications & Testimony

In a report filed by the Kansas Judicial Council Death Penalty Advisory Committee, retired Kansas Supreme Court Justice Fred N. Six not­ed that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment cas­es pose immense burdens on…

The Appellate Division of New Jersey’s Superior Court ruled today that the state’s Department of Corrections (DOC) must exam­ine its lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures before it car­ries out any death sen­tences, there­by halt­ing exe­cu­tions in the state until such a review takes place. The rul­ing notes, “[B]ecause of the patent grav­i­ty of the life and death issues impli­cat­ed by the reg­u­la­tions, we have con­clud­ed that rather than sim­ply strik­ing down those…

Lexington…

Two new books on the death penal­ty offer read­ers an exam­i­na­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment law and America’s use of this pun­ish­ment. In ​“Understanding Capital Punishment Law,” a new book pub­lished as part of the LexisNexis Understanding series, law pro­fes­sors Linda Carter and Ellen Kreitzberg offer stu­dents in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment cours­es an overview of this com­plex area of law. The book includes a thor­ough review of con­sti­tu­tion­al law and cur­rent issues related…

Los Angles…

Casper…

Hung Thanh Le, a Vietnamese for­eign nation­al, is sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on February 26^th in Oklahoma. Governor Brad Henry has so far reject­ed a unan­i­mous rec­om­men­da­tion from the Oklahoma Board of Pardon and Paroles to reduce Le’s death sen­tence to life in prison. Le’s appeal notes that he was not informed of his right to con­tact the Vietnamese con­sulate when he was arrest­ed and may have been suf­fer­ing from post-trau­­mat­ic stress dis­or­der stem­ming from the Vietnam…

Alan Gell of North Carolina became the nation’s 113^th exon­er­at­ed death row inmate today, February 18, 2004. Gell, who has main­tained his inno­cence since his 1998 con­vic­tion, was acquit­ted of all charges by a jury that delib­er­at­ed for only two and a half hours at his retri­al. In December 2002, a North Carolina judge vacat­ed Gell’s mur­der con­vic­tion and ordered a new trial…

Rapid…

Washington…