Publications & Testimony

According to Don Dawson, Tennessee’s chief post-con­vic­tion defend­er, Dr. Smith had com­plet­ed the autop­sies, super­vised the autop­sies, or tes­ti­fied dur­ing tri­al in 30 to 40 per­cent of the state’s cap­i­tal cas­es. Of the state’s 97 death row inmates, 38 were con­vict­ed in Shelby County where Smith…

Texas has sched­uled the exe­cu­tion of four juve­nile offend­ers between March and June of 2004 despite the fact that the U. S. Supreme Court has agreed to review whether such exe­cu­tions are con­sti­tu­tion­al. Arguments in Roper v. Simmons, No. 03 – 633, a case from Missouri where the state Supreme Court ruled that the exe­cu­tion of those under the age 18 at the time of their crime would be cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment, are not expect­ed to take place until this com­ing fall, months after the…

Yankton Daily…

Charlize Theron, who recent­ly won a Golden Globe Award for her por­tray­al of exe­cut­ed Florida death row inmate Aileen Wuornos in the movie ​“Monster,” has stat­ed that mak­ing the movie made her more aware of how ​“inef­fec­tive” cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is. Theron, who is opposed to the death penal­ty, was only 15 when her own moth­er shot and killed her drunk­en father after he threat­ened to kill his wife and daugh­ter. ​“I don’t think con­demn­ing peo­ple who mur­der and then killing them…

Prosecutors from Middlesex County, New Jersey, have decid­ed to adhere to the wish­es of the vic­tim’s fam­i­ly and will not seek the death penal­ty against Dwayne Carreker of New Brunswick at his retri­al. They will instead seek a sen­tence of life in prison. ​“The vic­tim’s moth­er has said she is more inter­est­ed in jus­tice and clo­sure than she is with the death penal­ty,” said First Assistant Prosecutor William Lamb. Lamb not­ed that his office con­sid­ered the vic­tim’s fam­i­ly’s wish­es and the result of…

A recent inves­ti­ga­tion of California’s death penal­ty by the Associated Press found that the geo­graph­ic loca­tion of a crime plays a sig­nif­i­cant role in whether a defen­dant receives the death penal­ty. California has the nation’s largest death row. A dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly high num­ber of inmates are from places such as Kern, Riverside, and Shasta Counties, where pros­e­cu­tors have voiced strong sup­port for the death penal­ty and jurors have been more like­ly to sup­port the sen­tence. On the other hand,…

After con­sult­ing with the fam­i­ly of the mur­der vic­tim, Maryland pros­e­cu­tors decid­ed not to seek the death penal­ty against Kenneth Collins dur­ing a recent resen­tenc­ing hear­ing. Collins’ death sen­tence was over­turned because of an inad­e­quate defense at his orig­inial tri­al. Margaret Breeden, the vic­tim’s wid­ow, not­ed that seek­ing the death penal­ty for Collins would result in years of ago­niz­ing appeals and that her fam­i­ly is ​“tired of reliv­ing the mem­o­ries of his death every time a new hearing is…

Mirroring a nation­wide decline in both exe­cu­tions and death row pop­u­la­tion, Maryland’s death row has fall­en by 50% in recent years and the state has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since 1998. An in-depth review of Maryland’s death row by The Washington Post found that the state’s death row has dropped from a pop­u­la­tion of 18 to 9, large­ly due to rever­sals in cas­es and the impact of court rul­ings else­where. Victims’ fam­i­lies, emo­tion­al­ly frayed by the years of appeals, are also telling…

The New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that pros­e­cu­tors who plan to seek the death penal­ty must sub­mit that request to a grand jury for approval. Prior to the 4 – 2 rul­ing by the Court, pros­e­cu­tors could decide to seek the death penal­ty as late as the mid­dle of the tri­al. The Court’s deci­sion was made in the case of Scott Fortin, and will prob­a­bly affect oth­er cas­es cur­rent­ly being pros­e­cut­ed. The remain­ing 13 inmates on death row may not be affect­ed unless the rul­ing is held to be…

Three stays of exe­cu­tion were issued on February 4^th in cas­es in Florida, Texas, and Pennsylvania. The United States Supreme Court briefly stayed an exe­cu­tion in Florida to exam­ine the appeal from Johnny Robinson. However, the Court vot­ed 5 – 4 to allow the exe­cu­tion to take place. In Pennsylvania, the March 11 exe­cu­tion of Kenneth Miller was stayed by a Philadelphia court. In Texas, a 60-day stay was grant­ed to Scott Panetti who was to be exe­cut­ed February 5. Panetti, who in the decade…