Publications & Testimony

On December 17, 2003, Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation released a report regard­ing the per­spec­tives of fam­i­ly mem­bers on the juve­nile death penal­ty: ​“I Don’t Want Another Kid to Die.” The report opens a win­dow into mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­lies strug­gles with the death penal­ty in gen­er­al, and more specif­i­cal­ly, how the issue changes when the defen­dant is a juve­nile. Read their Press Release. Read the Report (in PDF…

Washington…

The Chicago City Council finance com­mit­tee quick­ly approved a $2.2 mil­lion wrong­ful con­vic­tion set­tle­ment for for­mer death row inmate Ronald Jones. ​“I think it is a good deal for the city,” said Chicago Alderman William Beavers, indi­cat­ing that he and oth­er alder­men breathed a sigh of relief that the city will get off so cheap­ly in its set­tle­ment with Jones, who was coerced into a con­fes­sion to a 1985 rape and mur­der that he did not com­mit. Jones spent 14 years on Illinois’s death row before…

After 16 years on death row, Darnell Williams was 3 days from exe­cu­tion when then Governor Frank O’Bannon issued a reprieve to allow the genet­ic test­ing of droplets of blood found on Williams’ shorts after the shoot­ing. Recently released test results sup­port Williams’ claim that he was­n’t present when a Gary, Indiana cou­ple was fatal­ly shot 17 years ago. Thomas Vanes, the pros­e­cu­tor at Williams’ 1986 tri­al, now says that Williams should not be exe­cut­ed. He said, ​“I agree now that this is not…

A list con­tain­ing the names of 169 mem­bers of the U.S. mil­i­tary who were exe­cut­ed between 1942 and 1961 was recent­ly dis­cov­ered at the Pentagon. The list also con­tains a few dozen addi­tion­al cas­es where per­sons were sen­tenced to death, but not exe­cut­ed, and the names of 7 German pris­on­ers of war who were exe­cut­ed. The 1961 exe­cu­tion of Pvt. John Bennett, who was hung after con­vic­tions for rape and attempt­ed mur­der, was the mil­i­tary’s last exe­cu­tion. The ledger also includes the name of Pvt.

Members of New Jersey’s leg­is­la­ture have passed by a wide mar­gin a bipar­ti­san bill call­ing for the cre­ation of a study com­mis­sion to exam­ine the cost, fair­ness and effects of cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions in that state. The bill had the sup­port of key state leg­is­la­tors, includ­ing Republican Senator Robert Martin. Martin said that he believed it might be time for New Jersey to con­sid­er a com­plete ban on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, not­ing that the state’s review process ​“is so cum­ber­some and expen­sive” that New…

A report in the Polk County (Florida) Lakeland Ledger exam­ined the finan­cial impact of cost­ly cap­i­tal tri­als on states that are strug­gling to make ends meet. The report not­ed that death penal­ty cas­es neg­a­tive­ly impact coun­ty gov­ern­ments because the hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars that is spent annu­al­ly on cap­i­tal cas­es takes away fund­ing from cru­cial indi­gent care pro­grams and oth­er impor­tant ser­vices. As an exam­ple, the paper notes, ​“Take the case of Tavares Wright. The legal bill stands at…

Kansas Death Penalty Cost ReportSummary by Death Penalty Information CenterThe State of Kansas recent­ly issued a report esti­mat­ing the costs of the death penal­ty in that state: ​“Performance Audit Report: Costs Incurred for Death Penalty Cases: A K‑GOAL Audit of the Department of Corrections,” (December 2003).

Anthony Maurice Bone will become the sixth North Carolina death row inmate to have his sen­tence com­mut­ed to life in prison due to a 2001 state law ban­ning the exe­cu­tion of indi­vid­u­als with men­tal retar­da­tion. The state defines as men­tal­ly retard­ed any­one with an IQ of 70 or below who also has sig­nif­i­cant impair­ment in at least two of ten life activ­i­ties, such as com­mu­ni­cat­ing and tak­ing care of them­selves. The law requires that defen­dants show signs of retar­da­tion before they turn 18. The…

During a recent appear­ance on CNN’s ​“Larry King Live,” come­di­an Bill Cosby addressed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and his expe­ri­ence as the father of a mur­dered child. Cosby…