Publications & Testimony

According to a report in the Houston Chronicle, none of the ana­lysts who worked in the Houston Police Department’s dis­cred­it­ed DNA lab (which pre­sent­ed evi­dence in death penal­ty cas­es) were qual­i­fied by edu­ca­tion and train­ing to do their jobs. The Chronicle’s exam­i­na­tion of per­son­nel records found that not one of the lab’s employ­ees met nation­al stan­dards and only one of the employ­ees had com­plet­ed all required col­lege cours­es man­dat­ed by the DNA Advisory Board Quality Assurance Standards.

“Purposeful Discrimination in Capital Sentencing” by David V. Baker exam­ines the issue of race and cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing in the con­text of three U.S. Supreme Court death penal­ty deci­sions — Furman v. Georgia, Gregg v. Georgia, and McCleskey v. Kemp. After his review of prac­ti­cal strate­gies to improve the fair­ness of the death penal­ty process, Baker con­cludes that court efforts have failed to elim­i­nate race as a strong pre­dic­tor in death sen­tenc­ing. (5 Journal of Law & Social Challenges 189…

Nearly 20 years after the mur­der of 9‑year-old Dawn Hamilton, Maryland pros­e­cu­tors have charged the man they believe is respon­si­ble for the crime by using the same DNA evi­dence used to exon­er­ate Kirk Bloodsworth (pic­tured right), who spent nine years in prison — includ­ing time on Maryland’s death row — for the crime. Bloodsworth was freed in 1993 after DNA tests con­clu­sive­ly deter­mined he was not the source of phys­i­cal evi­dence found at the scene of the crime. Prosecutors now believe the…

Law firms not nor­mal­ly asso­ci­at­ed with death penal­ty cas­es have pro­vid­ed cru­cial assis­tance to a hand­ful of Texas death row inmates whose cas­es involved issues such as inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion at tri­al, men­tal retar­da­tion, and inno­cence. While the firms do not spe­cial­ize in crim­i­nal law, they do have what many feel is lack­ing for most cap­i­tal defen­dants — high­ly edu­cat­ed and high­ly moti­vat­ed attor­neys who have the finan­cial resources to ful­ly inves­ti­gate cas­es. For…

“Lethal Elections: Gubernatorial Politics and the Timing of Executions,” a study by researchers Jeffrey Kubik and John Moran of Syracuse University, reveals that elec­tion-year polit­i­cal con­sid­er­a­tions may play a role in deter­min­ing the tim­ing of exe­cu­tions. Their research showed that states are approx­i­mate­ly 25% more like­ly to con­duct exe­cu­tions in guber­na­to­r­i­al elec­tion years than in oth­er years. The researchers also found that elec­tions have a larg­er effect on the prob­a­bil­i­ty that an…

Relying on the fun­da­men­tal impor­tance of a defen­dan­t’s right to a jury tri­al, a fed­er­al appeals court issed a rul­ing that could over­turn many sen­tences in Arizona, Montana, and Idaho. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9^th Circuit ruled that an inmate’s sub­stan­tive con­sti­tu­tion­al rights were at issue when he was sen­tenced under state laws that per­mit­ted judges instead of juries to deter­mine eli­gi­bil­i­ty for the death penal­ty. By a vote of 8 – 3, the court ruled that the 2002 Supreme Court’s…

A recent inves­ti­ga­tion by a spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor into the Chicago-based ​“Ford Heights Four” case revealed that police and pros­e­cu­tors per­pet­u­at­ed a ​“tun­nel vision” men­tal­i­ty that kept them from pur­su­ing the real per­pe­tra­tors of the crime. Former pros­e­cu­tor and judge Gino DiVito led the inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion con­duct­ed by the FBI and fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors. He not­ed that the flawed Ford Heights Four inves­ti­ga­tion of Dennis Williams, Verneal Jimerson, Kenneth Adams, and Willie Rainge was tainted…

The fol­low­ing are excerpts from Summerlin v. Stewart, No. 98 – 99002 (9^th Cir. Sept. 2, 2003): (page num­bers refer to the on-line ver­sion; sub­heads are not part of the…

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund has released its lat­est edi­tion of ​“Death Row USA.” The total num­ber of inmates on death row again declined from the pre­vi­ous report, mark­ing a sharp rever­sal from the years of death row increas­es between 1973 and 2000. A total of 3,517 inmates remain on death row. The only juris­dic­tions record­ing death row pop­u­la­tion increas­es were Alabama, Arizona, California, Missouri, Nevada, Oregon, Virginia, and the Federal Government. See Death Row USA. (NAACP-LDF, Death…

Delaware County pros­e­cu­tors and defense attor­neys for Nicholas James Yarris have joint­ly asked the court to vacate his 1982 cap­i­tal con­vic­tion after DNA test­ing showed that Yarris was not the source of evi­dence found on the body of the vic­tim. While pros­e­cu­tors have the option of retry­ing Yarris, defense attor­neys note that they are ​“not aware of any evi­dence in Nick’s case” that is strong enough to war­rant a new tri­al. If pros­e­cu­tors decline to retry the case, it is expect­ed that Yarris will…