Publications & Testimony

Inclusion or exclu­sion of a can­di­date on this page does not imply sup­port by DPIC. For more infor­ma­tion on each can­di­date, go to their indi­vid­ual 2004 Election home­page, or vis­it The Washington Post’s 2004 Election…

A new Amnesty International report exam­ines the case of Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman, a Tennessee death row inmate sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on June 18. His case involves ques­tions of inad­e­quate defense and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. The report notes that after learn­ing of excul­pa­to­ry and mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence that was kept from the jury at Abdur’Rahman’s tri­al, eight of the orig­i­nal tri­al jurors said that they no longer have con­fi­dence in their sen­tenc­ing ver­dict. In addi­tion, a Tennessee Supreme Court…

A new Amnesty International report exam­ines the case of Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman, a Tennessee death row inmate sched­uled for exe­cu­tion on June 18. His case involves ques­tions of inad­e­quate defense and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. The report notes that after learn­ing of excul­pa­to­ry and mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence that was kept from the jury at Abdur’Rahman’s tri­al, eight of the orig­i­nal tri­al jurors said that they no longer have con­fi­dence in their sen­tenc­ing ver­dict. In addi­tion, a Tennessee Supreme Court…

American mil­i­tary offi­cials say that a Canadian teen being held at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba could be eli­gi­ble for the death penal­ty. The 17-year-old boy was cap­tured in Afghanistan last July and is accused of killing a U.S. medic dur­ing bat­tle as a mem­ber of al-Qaida. After 18 months of impris­on­ment, none of the 700 detainees have been offi­cial­ly charged, but a review of their cas­es by President George W. Bush is pend­ing. Some of the cas­es could involve cap­i­tal charges, and…

Although he beheads up to sev­en peo­ple a day, Saudi Arabia’s lead­ing exe­cu­tion­er, 42-year-old Muhammad Saad Al-Beshi, says that he leads a nor­mal life and is car­ry­ing out God’s will. Using a sword giv­en to him as a gift by the gov­ern­ment, Al-Beshi has per­formed pub­lic exe­cu­tions since 1998 and has since trained his son, Musaed, to also become an exe­cu­tion­er. ​“An exe­cu­tion­er’s life, of course, is not all killing. Sometimes it can be ampu­ta­tion of hands and legs. I use a spe­cial sharp knife,…

North Carolina’s Attorney General has announced that the state will retry Alan Gell, whose death sen­tence was vacat­ed last year when a North Carolina judge ruled that pros­e­cu­tors with­held impor­tant evi­dence that might have exon­er­at­ed Gell at his 1998 tri­al. After acknowl­edg­ing that pros­e­cu­tors from his office vio­lat­ed court orders and the U.S. Constitution by not hand­ing over the evi­dence, Attorney General Ray Copper announced that the state will not seek the death penal­ty at Gell’s second…

Despite the fact that the Constitution defin­ing Puerto Rico’s sta­tus as a self-gov­ern­ing com­mon­wealth asso­ci­at­ed with the United States uncon­di­tion­al­ly bans cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, the U.S. is seek­ing the fed­er­al death penal­ty in the tri­al of two Puerto Rican men. The tri­al has spurred grass-root protests against the death penal­ty. Gov. Sila M. Calderon, the Commonwealth’s top elect­ed offi­cial, said the case demon­strates the need to fur­ther reform the U.S. — Puerto Rican rela­tion­ship, especially…

States have been spend­ing tens to hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars extra per year in order to pur­sue the death penal­ty, while crime fight­ing strate­gies that have been proven effec­tive are start­ing to suf­fer as states face severe bud­get deficits. The New York Times recent­ly col­lect­ed some of the cut­backs to essential…

Despite con­cerns that errors made by poor­ly paid pri­vate attor­neys who are unfa­mil­iar with death penal­ty lit­i­ga­tion could risk inno­cent lives in Florida, Governor Jeb Bush will soon close one of the state’s three Capital Collateral Regional Counsel (CCRC) offices. The offices are designed to defend death row inmates in their post-con­vic­tion appeals. Bush is clos­ing the Tallahassee office, where attor­neys have suc­cess­ful­ly freed wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed death row inmates. Bush claims that the…

Illinois law­mak­ers recent­ly approved sweep­ing death penal­ty reforms and have sent the leg­isla­tive pack­age to Governor Rod Blagojevich for sig­na­ture into law. The reforms are expect­ed to trans­form the inves­ti­ga­tion and pros­e­cu­tion of every death-eli­gi­ble crime in Illinois. Based on rec­om­men­da­tions made by the Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment, the bill would change police pro­ce­dures regard­ing dis­clo­sure of evi­dence, set up a sys­tem to get rid of police offi­cers who lie, limit the…