Publications & Testimony

Charles Duff’s 1928 publication A Handbook on Hanging has been re-published with updates and a new introduction by journalist Christopher Hitchens. The book provides readers with a satiric look at the practice of carrying out executions. Duff writes not only of hanging, but of electrocution, decapitation, and gassing. He also takes a tongue-in-cheek look at issues such as botched executions, public response to executions, and deterrence. With factual details and notable quotations, this book…

Despite efforts by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to broaden the use of the federal death penalty, less than a third of the federal death penalty trials since 2001 have resulted in a death sentence. Of the 34 federal capital cases Ashcroft authorized, 23 did not result in the death penalty. Critics say that this poor record suggests waning public enthusiasm for executions and that juries and judges see through what many believe to be weak cases for the federal death penalty. Ashcroft, who…

A series of murder cases in Oregon underscores the ineffectiveness of the state’s capital punishment system according to both death penalty supporters and opponents. Jesse Lee Johnson was sentenced to death while two other men who committed equally or more brutal crimes plea bargained to lesser sentences. Johnson received a death sentence in large part because he maintained his innocence, while convicted murderers Ward Weaver and Edward Morris pleaded guilty in exchange for not receiving the…

In the wake of a scandal that has called into question the reliability of the police crime lab’s testing and handling of evidence in Harris County, Texas, Police Chief Harold Hurtt has said that executions of inmates from the county should not be scheduled until all relevant evidence has been reexamined to assure accuracy. He went on to note that the executions of nine individuals convicted in Harris County that are scheduled to take place before March 2005 should not be allowed to go forward.

On October 6, the 2^nd World Congress Against the Death Penalty will convene in Montreal, Canada. More than 1,000 participants from around the world are expected to gather at the city’s Place des Arts, including many U.S. policy makers and death penalty experts. Americans such as Mike Farrell, Barry Scheck, and several death row exonerees will join international human rights leaders including former U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights Mary Robinson, Bianca Jagger, and actress Catherine…

Sammy Perkins is scheduled for execution in North Carolina on October 8, despite his mental illness and the fact that the jurors at his trial did not learn the extent of his disability. According to a press release from Perkins’s attorneys: “The jury never heard the full story of Sammy Perkins’ mental disorder: A family history of psychiatric problems left its mark on Sammy Perkins. Several family members suffered from mental illnesses. In his late teens and early twenties, the time when…

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear a death row appeal from a Pennsylvania man who maintains that jurors at his trial should have been told that they had the option of sentencing him to life without parole instead of the death penalty. According to the brief filed on behalf of Ronald Rompilla, the jury asked several questions during his trial about Rompilla’s “future dangerousness,” yet were never told that if sentenced to prison he would never be eligible for later release. The jury…

The execution of Rickey Dale Newman in Arkansas, scheduled for the night of September 28, was stayed by the state Supreme Court. Newman had waived his appeals. Nevertheless, there is evidence that he may be mentally retarded. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Atkins v. Virginia (2002) that people with mental retardation cannot be executed. Newman’s case raises the question of whether a third party can intervene to request a stay of execution, even though the defendant does not want to appeal but…

The North Carolina State bar has reprimanded two former assistant attorney generals for withholding evidence that could have prevented the wrongful conviction of Alan Gell, who was finally freed from death row in 2004 (pictured). The State Bar panel found that prosecutors David Hoke and Debra Graves failed to turn over evidence to Gell, did not adequately supervise the conduct of their chief investigator for the case, and brought the judicial system into disrepute by their conduct. Hoke and…

When Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was a senator in Arizona, one of the people she asked to draft the state’s death penalty law was Rudolph Gerber. She requested that he “write a law we can live with.” Mr. Gerber went on to become a prosecutor, an Arizona trial judge, and eventually a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals for 13 years. He recently expressed his changing views on capital punishment as he experienced how the law was put into practice: “My experience, not atypical by any means…