Publications & Testimony

Battleboro (Vermont) Reformer October 13, 2004 Too young to die? One night in 1993, Shirley Crook was awakened by 2 burglars in her Missouri home. She was bound with duct tape. She was dragged out of the house. And, still alive and conscious, she was tossed from a railroad trestle into a river where she died. Anglers found her body and within 2 days Christopher Simmons confessed to committing the crimes with a friend. A jury later convicted him of murder and a judge sentenced him to…

Battleboro (Vermont) Reformer October 13, 2004 One night in 1993, Shirley Crook was awakened by 2 burglars in her Missouri home. She was bound with duct tape. She was dragged out of the house. And, still alive and conscious, she was tossed from a railroad trestle into a river where she died. Anglers found her body and within 2 days Christopher Simmons confessed to committing the crimes with a friend. A jury later convicted him of murder and a judge sentenced him to death. The law didn’t…

Following a call from the Houston Police Chief and from state legislators to halt executions in cases from Harris County, four of the state’s largest newspapers published editorials in support of a moratorium on executions. The Houston police crime lab has been plagued with errors in DNA testing and preservation of evidence. There have been far more executions from Harris County (Houston) than from any other county in the country. AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN (N)othing can justify an execution…

In “Waiting to Die: Life on Death Row,” Richard M. Rossi provides a first-hand account of his daily life on Arizona’s death row. Rossi was sentenced to death in 1983 and has taken responsibility for the murder he committed. He was originally offered a plea bargain with a life sentence, but he decided to go to trial. He has been on death row for 20 years. In his book, Rossi details how prisoners survive on death row, the conditions under which they live, and the psychological toll that living…

The Republican (Springfield, MA) October 11, 2004 Editorial One day, we hope, the United States Supreme Court will rule that the death penalty is unconstitutional. In the meantime, the nation’s highest court can take a step toward that end by ruling it unconstitutional to execute a juvenile. On Oct. 13, the court will hear arguments in Roper vs. Simmons, a challenge to the constitutionality of the death penalty for persons who committed crimes when they were 16 or 17 years old. The United…

On October 9, the U.S. Senate passed by voice vote a bill called the “Justice for All Act of 2004” that contains important elements of the Innocence Protection Act, originally introduced in 2000. A similar bill recently overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives (HR 5107), and it is expected that the final legislation will now be signed into law. The bill provides for expanded access to DNA testing for prison inmates and assistance to states for both defense and prosecution in…

A deeply divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled 8 – 7 that the execution of Tennessee death row inmate Paul Gregory House may move forward despite the fact that nearly half of the judges believe he is not guilty and should be freed immediately. “We are faced with a real-life murder mystery, an authentic ‘who-done-it’ where the wrong man may be executed,” wrote dissenting judge Ronald Lee Gilman. A N.Y. Times article noted that although courts are often closely divided on legal…

A recently published study by Northeastern criminal justice professors William J. Bowers and Michael E. Antonio, in conjunction with University of Delaware professors Valerie P. Hans and Benjamin D. Fleury-Steiner, finds jurors very reluctant to give the death penalty to juvenile defendants because of their immaturity and dysfunctional family backgrounds. “ In interviewing almost 1,200 jurors, we’ve found that jurors across the nation would nearly always sentence a juvenile to life,” said…

The Virginian-Pilot October 7, 2004 Editorial True to Virginia’s roots, the state political establishment will cast its lot with the executioners when the U. S. Supreme Court takes up the juvenile death penalty on Oct. 13. Attorney General Jerry Kilgore has joined his counterparts in Alabama, Delaware, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah in signing a legal brief supporting retention of the ultimate penalty for youths whose crimes were committed at ages 16 or 17. Unfortunately, that’s par for the…