Publications & Testimony

DPIC RELEASES 2003 YEAR END REPORT​“DPIC’s 2003 Year End Report reveals a decline in crit­i­cal death penal­ty num­bers: few­er death sen­tences, few­er exe­cu­tions, a small­er death row, and a decline in pub­lic sup­port. The report also high­lights the high num­ber of exon­er­a­tions from death row this year and the emer­gence of new voic­es challenging the…

A recent Baltimore Sun edi­to­r­i­al crit­i­cized state lead­ers for fail­ing to respond to a series of stud­ies show­ing that race plays a dis­turb­ing role in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Maryland. The paper not­ed that a study con­duct­ed by University of Maryland Professor Raymond Paternoster agreed with four oth­er reviews that all revealed sim­i­lar find­ings regard­ing race and the death penal­ty in Maryland.

Harris County District Attorney Joseph S. Owmby, who helped pros­e­cute Andrea Yates for cap­i­tal mur­der, recent­ly told a gath­er­ing of 200 Houston area men­tal health and law enforce­ment pro­fes­sion­als that had Yates received more hos­pi­tal treat­ment for her post­par­tum depres­sion, she prob­a­bly would­n’t have mur­dered her chil­dren. Owmby not­ed that Yates lost her last chance for recov­ery when she was released from a hos­pi­tal in League City while she was still…

A new poll con­duct­ed by ABC News revealed that only 37% of the pub­lic sup­ports the death penal­ty for Lee Boyd Malvo, who was recent­ly con­vict­ed of mur­der in Virginia. Malvo was 17 at the time of a series of shoot­ings in the Washington, DC area. 52% of respon­dents pre­ferred a sen­tence of life with­out parole for Malvo. Even stronger oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty for juve­niles in gen­er­al was revealed in the same poll: only 21% were in favor of the death penalty for…

Richmond…

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…

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…

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…