Publications & Testimony

“The Problem of False Confessions in a Post-DNA World,” a recent study published in the North Carolina Law Review, found that juvenile offenders were involved in 33% of the cases where the defendant confessed to a crime that he or she did not commit. Ninety-two percent of the cases involved false confessions from individuals under the age of 40, and more than half were under the age of 25. According to the study’s authors, law professors Richard Leo of the University of California at Irvine and…

Decatur Daily April 23, 2004 Editorial Fledgling Attorney General Troy King has picked an interesting first major stance since being appointed to office by Gov. Bob Riley. It’s a safe one. He’s going to fight bills that would put a moratorium on the death penalty. Politically, standing up against those who oppose the death penalty is a popular fight in Alabama, where even losing the fight could be a winning situation. Mr. King already knows he has legislative support to fight these bills…

By a vote of 29 – 19, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights passed a resolution calling on all nations to declare a moratorium on executions. The resolution cited concerns about the fairness and accuracy of the death penalty. In order to address these problems, the resolution calls on nations that no longer use the death penalty to remove it from their laws, and for countries that continue to carry out executions to limit the number of crimes that may be punished by death. The resolution…

Lakeland Ledger April 22, 2004 Editorial The Florida Legislature has always been strong on capital punishment and has recoiled against any limitations imposed by the courts. At the same time, it has failed to clarify a key question relating to the death penalty: How young is too young when sentencing a killer to death? Oddly, the Legislature has avoided that question. The result has been that the courts have been forced to step in. As it stands now, a person cannot be sentenced to death if…

Concorde (NH) Monitor April 22, 2004 Editorial A civilized society does not kill children, not even children who’ve killed. According to Amnesty International, the United States has executed more juveniles over the past decade than all other nations combined. Of the 22 American children executed for their crimes since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 13 were put to death in Texas. Virginia (three), Oklahoma (two) and Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Missouri (one each) accounted…

Researchers at the University of Michigan identified 328 criminal cases, including 73 death penalty cases, over the last 15 years in which the defendant was ultimately exonerated. The study suggested that many more innocent people are in prison today. Most of the cases studied involved murder and rape, crimes that are subjected to the most intense police investigation but that can also provide defendants with the opportunity to prove their innocence based on DNA evidence. Of the 328 cases of…

Palm Beach Post April 21, 2004 Editorial A small shaft of enlightenment has cut into the dark thinking in Florida about capital punishment. 2 committees in Tallahassee have approved legislation that would ban the death penalty for people who are under 18 years of age when they commit a capital crime. Last week, the proposal cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee 7 – 0 and the House Public Safety Committee 17 – 1. As with almost all other matters that relate to the death penalty, Florida is…

Tampa (FL) Tribune April 15, 2004 Editorial By JEFFREY P. BROSCO Floridians should be proud that our Legislature has taken a lead role in the nationwide juvenile death penalty debate. Until recently, our political leaders were on track in calling for the minimum age for execution to be 18; now this wise decision risks being derailed by a few who proposed an amendment lowering the age to 17. While a one-year difference may seem arbitrary and inconsequential, every year counts for children…

Tampa Tribune April 15, 2004 Editorial A bill moving through the state Senate would outlaw the execution of killers who are younger than 18 when they commit murder. Sen. Victor Crist, R‑Tampa, says he sponsored the bill because it will preserve Florida’s capital punishment law if the U.S. Supreme Court decides the death penalty can be imposed only on adults. Florida law today allows the death penalty for 17-year-old killers, but the nation’s high court will soon decide whether executing…

On Monday, April 19, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case of Schriro v. Summerlin that will determine whether a prior decision applies only to some death row inmates in the first stage of their appeals or to all inmates in the affected states. In 2002, the Court held in Ring v. Arizona that juries, not judges, must decide who is eligible for the death penalty. The new ruling could affect over 100 death row inmates in at least 5 states. At the conclusion of Summerlin’s…