Publications & Testimony

A television Mini-series based on the fiction novel “Reversible Errors,” a best-selling book by award-winning author and capital defense attorney Scott Turow, will air on CBS on Sunday May 23, and Tuesday May 25, 2004. The story is about a corporate lawyer whose world is turned upside-down when he is assigned to draft the final appeal of a potentially innocent inmate nearing his execution date. Although “Reversible Errors” is not about an actual capital case in the U.S., the novel and the CBS…

During a “fireside chat” with fellow Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and hundreds of lawyers and judges who practice in federal courts in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens stated, “I think this country would be much better off if we did not have capital punishment.” Stevens noted that he believes the death penalty is constitutional, adding, “But I really think it’s a very unfortunate part of our judicial system and I would feel much, much better if…

Scientists who are skeptical of Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s claim that DNA is “infallible” evidence in a death penalty case have voiced concern about the assumption, noting that there is no way to avoid all possible instances of human error and that the evidence does not always prove a person’s guilt or innocence. Theodore D. Kessis is the founder of Applied DNA Resources, based in Columbus, Ohio, and a faculty member at the John Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore. He…

New York religious leaders representing a range of faiths and regions recently united to voice their opposition to the death penalty and to encourage a moratorium on executions so that issues of fairness and accuracy may be addressed. A statement issued by the group noted: “[O]ur nation’s continued reliance on the death penalty is extremely costly, ineffective in fighting crime, unequally applied, and handed out with alarming frequency to defendants who are later proved to be innocent. Even…

During the past 10 years, most Commonwealth African countries have moved toward abolishing the death penalty and today almost half of these countries have abandoned the practice according to Amnesty International. Government leaders from around the continent recently met in Entebbe, Uganda, for a two-day summit to discuss capital punishment. Five Southern African Development Countries have abolished capital punishment, and the number of countries ending the death penalty in the Economic…

By Lee Bowman Recent popular films depicting teenagers suddenly housed in adult bodies have more than a little truth in them. The latest brain research has found strong evidence that when it comes to maturity, organization and control, key parts of the brain related to emotions, judgment and “thinking ahead” are the last to arrive. “It seems that regulation of impulse control is the last on board and often the first to leave in the brain as we age,” said Dr. Ruben Gur, a professor of…

By Claudia Wallis; Kristina Dell, with reporting by Alice Park/New York Five young men in sneakers and jeans troop into a waiting room at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., and drape themselves all over the chairs in classic collapsed-teenager mode, trailing backpacks, a CD player and a laptop loaded with computer games. It’s midafternoon, and they are, of course, tired, but even so their presence adds a jangly, hormonal buzz to the bland, institutional…

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board has voted to recommend clemency for death row inmate Osbaldo Torres, a Mexican foreign national who is scheduled to be executed on May 18. The Board made its decision after an hour-long hearing that included testimony from Carlos de Icaza, Mexican Ambassador to the United States. Icaza told the board that Mexico opposes capital punishment in all cases, and that this case was particularly troublesome because no proof was presented that Torres was the shooter…

“America’s Death Penalty: Beyond Repair?” examines capital punishment in the U.S. since 1976 through a variety of scholarly essays that look at critical issues such as innocence, race, arbitrariness, and international human rights law. Reknown death penalty expert and law professor Tony Amsterdam notes, “In these essays, some of our most knowledgeable students of capital punishment take a hard, no-nonsense look at how it actually operates and what drives America’s passionate refusal either to…