Publications & Testimony

“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…

A gath­er­ing of Nobel Laureates in Rome con­clud­ed with a com­mon state­ment call­ing for abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty and specif­i­cal­ly decry­ing the death penal­ty for juve­nile offend­ers. The state­ment not­ed ​“the death penal­ty is a par­tic­u­lar­ly cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment that should be abol­ished. It is espe­cial­ly uncon­scionable when imposed on chil­dren.” Among those in atten­dance at the sum­mit were Mikhail Gorbachev, for­mer Israel Prime Minister Simon Peres, the Dalai Lama, Mairead Corrigan…

A Rome sum­mit gath­er­ing of Nobel Laureates con­clud­ed with a com­mon state­ment call­ing for abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty and specif­i­cal­ly decry­ing the juve­nile death penal­ty. The state­ment not­ed ​“the death penal­ty is a par­tic­u­lar­ly cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment that should be abol­ished. It is espe­cial­ly uncon­scionable when imposed on chil­dren.” Among those in atten­dance at the sum­mit were Mikhail Gorbechev, for­mer Israel Prime Minister Simon Peres, the Dalai Lama, and Costa Rican President…

According to the lat­est Gallup Poll in October 2003, sup­port for the death penal­ty has dropped to 64%, its low­est lev­el since 1978. The 32% of Americans opposed to the death penal­ty rep­re­sent­ed the most oppo­si­tion since 1972. (2003 poll: CNN​.com, November 25, 2003; Fox News, November 26, 2003) This find­ing is par­tic­u­lar­ly note­wor­thy giv­en the exten­sive media cov­er­age lead­ing to the tri­als of John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo in Virginia. Two oth­er polls this year also record­ed a drop in death…

The Supreme Court agreed to clar­i­fy the impact of its 2002 Ring v. Arizona rul­ing that held that jurors, rather than a judge, must be allowed to deter­mine whether a defen­dant is eli­gi­ble for a death sen­tence. The Justices will decide whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9^th Circuit was cor­rect when it over­turned Warren Summerlin’s death sen­tence, hold­ing that Ring should apply retroac­tive­ly to inmates who had exhaust­ed their direct appeal. While the Supreme Court’s Ring ruling…

New York’s high­est court has over­turned the death sen­tence of James F. Cahill, one of six men remain­ing on the state’s death row. The Court found that the tri­al judge made errors in screen­ing the jurors who con­vict­ed Cahill and sen­tenced him to death. In its 4 – 2 rul­ing, the Court also not­ed that pros­e­cu­tors had not proven the ​“aggra­vat­ing fac­tors” required by New York’s death penal­ty law. Cahill will now serve a sen­tence of life in prison. (New York Times, November 26, 2003) Despite the fact…

In an edi­to­r­i­al pub­lished after a Virginia jury rec­om­mend­ed a death sen­tence for John Muhammad, USA Today not­ed that the case of Muhammad and his juve­nile co-defen­dant ​“under­mines pub­lic con­fi­dence that the law is applied objec­tive­ly.” The edi­to­r­i­al crit­i­cized the manip­u­la­tive place­ment of the case into Virginia courts and the stretch­ing of Virginia’s law to achieve the death penal­ty. Usually, Virginia has required that the defen­dant be the actu­al shoot­er to be eli­gi­ble for a death sentence.

In an inter­view in the Science sec­tion of the New York Times, Dr. Laurence Steinberg, a psy­chol­o­gist at Temple University and the direc­tor of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice, states that juve­nile offend­ers should be viewed under the law as less cul­pa­ble than adults because their brains are still devel­op­ing. In a forth­com­ing paper, Steinberg argues for a legal approach ​“under which most youths are dealt with in a sep­a­rate justice system…

Two years after Mexican for­eign nation­al Gerardo Valdez came with­in days of his sched­uled exe­cu­tion in Oklahoma, a jury has resen­tenced him to life with­out parole. In 2001, after review­ing evi­dence that Valdez was denied his right to seek assis­tance from the Mexican con­sulate as required by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board vot­ed to rec­om­mend Valdez’s clemen­cy request, and Mexican President Vicente Fox made a per­son­al plea to Governor Frank…