Publications & Testimony

A recent paper based on the Notre Dame Study of Catholic Parish Life reveals that sup­port for the death penal­ty among Catholics is strong­ly shaped by the opin­ion of their parish priest. After exam­in­ing Catholic opin­ions regard­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, soci­ol­o­gists Michael Welch of Notre Dame and Thoroddur Bjarnason of the University of Albany-SUNY dis­cov­ered that Catholics are less like­ly to sup­port the death penal­ty when their parish priest strong­ly oppos­es it. The study…

In a deci­sion reluc­tant­ly allow­ing a fed­er­al cap­i­tal mur­der case against Gary Lee Sampson to pro­ceed, Judge Mark L. Wolf of the Federal District Court in Boston expressed reser­va­tions about the accu­ra­cy of the death penal­ty and appeared to crit­i­cize the Justice Department’s zeal­ous approach to seek­ing the capital…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4^th Circuit has reject­ed an appeal filed on behalf of North Carolina death row inmate Kenneth Rouse. Without dis­put­ing the mer­its of his claim, the court ruled that it would not hear the case because the motion was filed one day after an appeal dead­line estab­lished by a 1996 fed­er­al law. In its rul­ing, the court wrote that the fact that Rouse faces the death penal­ty is no rea­son to give lee­way in meet­ing the fed­er­al dead­line. Rouse’s…

A recent Pew Research Center poll revealed a sig­nif­i­cant decline in sup­port for the death penal­ty as 64% of respon­dents sup­port­ed the pun­ish­ment com­pared to 78% in 1996. In addi­tion, the poll found that few­er respon­dents who favored cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment felt strong­ly about their sup­port (28% today com­pared to 43% in 1996), while a grow­ing num­ber of Americans are voic­ing oppo­si­tion to the pun­ish­ment alto­geth­er (30% today compared to…

Walter Schwimmer, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, recent­ly praised the deci­sion of Armenian President Robert Kocharyan to com­mute all remain­ing death sen­tences in the nation to life in prison.​“I am delight­ed that President Kocharyan has tak­en such a pos­i­tive and com­mend­able step for­ward. The death penal­ty is an affront to all notions of dig­ni­ty and human rights, and has no place in the Europe of today,” Schwimmer said. The President’s deci­sion to commute the…

In​“Why Do White Americans Support the Death Penalty?,” American University researchers Joe Soss, Laura Langbein, and Alan Metelko exam­ined whether racial atti­tudes play a role in white sup­port for the death penal­ty. The researchers found that white sup­port for the death penal­ty in the United States has strong ties to anti-black prej­u­dice, and in some geo­graph­ic areas racial prej­u­dice emerges as the strongest pre­dic­tor of white death penal­ty sup­port. Soss, Joe, et al.:​“Why…

In an op-ed that appeared in the Los Angeles Times on the day Indiana death row inmate Darnell Williams received a stay of exe­cu­tion to allow test­ing of cru­cial DNA evi­dence that could save his life, the pros­e­cu­tor from the case, Thomas Vanes, expressed sec­ond thoughts about seek­ing the death…

Legislation to bar doc­tors and nurs­es from par­tic­i­pat­ing in exe­cu­tions was recent­ly signed into law by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich on July 24, 2003. The bill states,​“The Department of Corrections shall not request, require, or allow a health care prac­ti­tion­er licensed in Illinois, includ­ing but not lim­it­ed to physi­cians and nurs­es, regard­less of employ­ment, to par­tic­i­pate in an exe­cu­tion.” (SB 0277) The bill is in-step with guide­lines estab­lished under the…

A recent arti­cle in Time looks at the career of Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle. The arti­cle traces Earle’s evolv­ing opin­ion on the death penal­ty since he was first elect­ed D.A. in Texas in 1976, the year the U.S. Supreme Court rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty. Among oth­er con­cerns, ques­tions of inno­cence have caused Earle to grow increas­ing­ly skep­ti­cal about the death penal­ty. The…

Baltimore County Judge Dana M. Levitz recent­ly sen­tenced a man con­vict­ed of mur­der to two life terms with­out parole, in part because of its pos­si­ble effects on the vic­tims’ fam­i­lies. Levitz said,​“The dev­as­tat­ing effect that this unend­ing lit­i­ga­tion has on the inno­cent fam­i­lies of the vic­tims is incal­cu­la­ble. By impos­ing a death sen­tence, I ensure that the vic­tim’s fam­i­lies will be sub­ject­ed to many more years of appeals.” Family mem­bers also not­ed that the…