Publications & Testimony

Race plays a sig­nif­i­cant role in who receives the death penal­ty in Washington. Research com­piled by the Washington Death Penalty Assistance Center, revealed that death notices have nev­er been filed in a case with a white defen­dant and a black vic­tim, while such notices have been filed in 42% of mur­der cas­es with a black defen­dant and a white vic­tim. Of the 10 indi­vid­u­als cur­rent­ly on death row in Washington, nine cas­es involved a white vic­tim and none involved a black vic­tim. In addition,…

During a speech host­ed by the Southern Center for International Studies in Atlanta, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor stressed the impor­tance of inter­na­tion­al law for American courts and the need for the United States to cre­ate a more favor­able impres­sion abroad. She cit­ed recent Supreme Court cas­es, includ­ing the Court’s rul­ing to ban the exe­cu­tion of those with men­tal retar­da­tion, that illus­trate the increased will­ing­ness of U.S. courts to take inter­na­tion­al law into account. ​“I…

A new book of pho­tog­ra­phy by Taryn Simon fea­tures por­traits of 45 men and women who served more than 500 years in prison for crimes they did not com­mit. The book includes sum­maries of each case accom­pa­nied by relat­ed images, such as re-cre­ations of the scenes of the arrest, por­traits of ali­bi wit­ness­es, or vignettes from the lives of the wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed. The book also con­tains com­men­tary by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld of The Innocence Project at Cardozo Law School in New York.

In a recent col­umn exam­in­ing Massachusetts’ con­sid­er­a­tion of the death penal­ty, con­ser­v­a­tive colum­nist George Will cites the con­clu­sions of death penal­ty experts who have close­ly exam­ined the accu­ra­cy and effec­tive­ness of this pun­ish­ment. Will cit­ed the work of the Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment and espe­cial­ly the expe­ri­ence of author Scott Turow. Will believes that Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s effort to find a fault­less death penal­ty will ultimately…

A report in the Chicago Tribune reveals that police and pros­e­cu­tors rarely pur­sue new leads and sus­pects after a wrong­ly con­vict­ed defen­dant has been exon­er­at­ed of the crime and released from death row. As a result, few sus­pects are brought to jus­tice for crimes once con­sid­ered so heinous that they were wor­thy of the death penal­ty, and the actu­al per­pe­tra­tors remain in soci­ety to poten­tial­ly com­mit addi­tion­al crimes. The Tribune report not­ed that court records indi­cate that an alternate…

Washington…

A spe­cial edi­tion of the Hofstra Law Review fea­tures an in-depth look at the American Bar Association’s Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases. The law review exam­ines the ABA’s revised defense coun­sel guide­lines that were approved on February 10, 2003, and it con­tains arti­cles based on an October 2003 con­fer­ence at Hofstra University dur­ing which all death penal­ty juris­dic­tions were urged to imple­ment the revised guide­lines. The ABA’s…

In a speech urg­ing U.S. lead­ers to rat­i­fy the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which for­bids the exe­cu­tion of juve­nile offend­ers, President Jimmy Carter not­ed that the United States and Somalia are the only two coun­tries in the U.N. that have not approved the guide­lines. ​“My wife (Rosalyn) writes let­ters to the gov­er­nors of each state when a child is going to be exe­cut­ed,” Carter not­ed as he praised his wife’s work to end the juve­nile death penal­ty. Carter added…

In a speech urg­ing U.S. lead­ers to rat­i­fy the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which for­bids the exe­cu­tion of juve­nile offend­ers, President Jimmy Carter not­ed that the United States and Somalia are the only two coun­tries in the U.N. that have not approved the guide­lines. ​“My wife (Rosalyn) writes let­ters to the gov­er­nors of each state when a child is going to be exe­cut­ed,” Carted not­ed as he praise his wife’s work to end the juve­nile death penal­ty. Carter noted…

In a speech urg­ing U.S. lead­ers to rat­i­fy the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which for­bids the exe­cu­tion of juve­nile offend­ers, President Jimmy Carter not­ed that the United States and Somalia are the only two coun­tries in the U.N. that have not approved the guide­lines. ​“My wife (Rosalyn) writes let­ters to the gov­er­nors of each state when a child is going to be exe­cut­ed,” Carted not­ed as he praise his wife’s work to end the juve­nile death penal­ty. Carter noted…