Publications & Testimony

Four stays were grant­ed for exe­cu­tions that were sched­uled to take place this week in Texas and Georgia, and Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed clemen­cy for a for­eign nation­al fac­ing exe­cu­tion in January 2004. In Texas, courts ordered three stays of exe­cu­tion. Two of the cas­es involved chal­lenges to the use of pan­curo­ni­um bro­mide as part of the state’s lethal injec­tion process. A third case, that of Bobby Lee Hines, was stayed on the basis of a mental retardation…

A series of pub­lic opin­ion polls reveals that only about a third of Americans sup­port the death penal­ty as applied to those who are under the age of 18 at the time of their crime. Recent sur­vey results include the…

Twenty-six years ago, Bill Wiseman draft­ed the first lethal-injec­tion law in U.S. his­to­ry, for­ev­er chang­ing the way most death penal­ty states admin­is­ter exe­cu­tions. He now says that guilt com­pelled him to draft the leg­is­la­tion after vot­ing to rein­state the death penal­ty in Oklahoma despite the fact that he had always been an oppo­nent of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. At the time, Wiseman was a first-term law­mak­er in Oklahoma’s assem­bly, and he knew oppos­ing the state’s 1976 mea­sure to bring back capital…

Minnesota Senator Tom Neuville, the lead­ing Republican com­mit­tee mem­ber on the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee, says he will oppose Governor Tim Pawlenty’s efforts to rein­state death penal­ty. Neuville’s basic oppo­si­tion is moral: ​“If we solve vio­lence by becom­ing vio­lent our­selves, we become dimin­ished.” Neuville, a for­mer death penal­ty sup­port­er whose reex­am­i­na­tion of his pro-life beliefs led him to change his mind on the issue, feels that many of his col­leagues share his con­cerns. ​“Life…

On December 9, 2003, Nicholas James Yarris of Pennsylvania became the 10^th per­son to be exon­er­at­ed from death row in 2003, equalling the most exon­er­a­tions in a sin­gle year since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed. He is the nation’s 112^th death row exoneree. Yarris’s con­vic­tion was ini­tial­ly over­turned when three DNA tests of the foren­sic tri­al evi­dence exclud­ed him. His exon­er­a­tion became final when Delaware County pros­e­cu­tors announced that they were drop­ping all charges against him. In July,…

The Supreme Court will hear argu­ments in Banks v. Dretke on Monday, December 8, 2003. The Court will review the low­er court’s denial of relief despite evi­dence that Banks was poor­ly rep­re­sent­ed at his 1980 tri­al, that pros­e­cu­tors with­held key infor­ma­tion, and that tes­ti­mo­ny from two pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness­es was unre­li­able. For more infor­ma­tion about this case, please see DPIC’s Banks v. Dretke…

Science Daily Magazine (NOTE: The orig­i­nal American Psychologist arti­cle states 12 of the 350 exe­cut­ed had IQs of 70 or below. The Science Daily Magazine arti­cle report­ed 112. The fol­low­ing text cor­rects that typo­graph­i­cal error.)Timing Of IQ Test Can Be A Life Or Death…

David Protess, a pro­fes­sor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in Chicago, has been award­ed the Puffin/​Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship. Protess and his inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ism stu­dents exposed mis­car­riages of jus­tice in a num­ber of high-pro­file cas­es in Illinois, includ­ing the case of Anthony Porter, who was only 48 hours away from his exe­cu­tion until stu­dents found evi­dence of his inno­cence. Porter’s case has often been cit­ed by for­mer Illinois Governor George…

“Legacy of Violence: Lynch Mobs and Executions in Minnesota,” a book by John D. Bessler, exam­ines the his­to­ry of ille­gal and state-sanc­tioned exe­cu­tions in Minnesota, one of twelve states that cur­rent­ly does not have the death penal­ty. The book is time­ly in that the cur­rent gov­er­nor, Tim Pawlenty, has pro­posed rein­stat­ing the death penal­ty, which was abol­ished in 1911. The book includes detailed per­son­al accounts from those who were involved in the events, as well as a his­to­ry of Minnesota’s…

Stephen Bright, Executive Director of the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR), has been named Newsmaker of the Year by the Fulton County Daily Report for his ​“unre­lent­ing efforts over the years to expose Georgia’s short­falls in indi­gent defense.” Bright has worked in Georgia for more than 25 years. During that time, he has rep­re­sent­ed count­less indi­gent defen­dants, many of whom have been on Georgia’s death row, and he has led the Southern Center’s fight to provide legal…