Publications & Testimony

Texas leg­is­la­tors have failed to pass laws that could bring the state into com­pli­ance with the U.S. Supreme Court’s rul­ing in Atkins v. Virginia that bans the exe­cu­tion of those with men­tal retar­da­tion. Nearly a year after the Court’s rul­ing in Atkins, Texas offi­cials have no idea how many of the 449 death row inmates have the dis­abil­i­ty, and no safe­guards to ensure that those affect­ed by the rul­ing are not put to death. Most of the leg­isla­tive efforts have focused on identifying defendants…

According to the FBI’s Preliminary Uniform Crime Report for 2002, the mur­der rate in the South increased by 2.1% while the mur­der rate in the Northeast decreased by almost 5%. The South accounts for 82% of all exe­cu­tions since 1976; the Northeast accounts for less than…

“Harmful Error,” a new report released by the The Center for Public Integrity, is the end prod­uct of an exten­sive two-year review of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct around the nation. The report notes that while many local pros­e­cu­tors per­form their dif­fi­cult work admirably, inad­ver­tent and inten­tion­al mis­con­duct still per­me­ates some dis­trict attor­neys’ offices. Among oth­er pieces of valu­able infor­ma­tion con­tained in the report, ​“Harmful Error” doc­u­ments cas­es in which pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al misconduct played…

By a vote of 7 – 2, the U.S. Supreme Court has thrown out the death sen­tence of Maryland death row inmate Kevin Wiggins, rul­ing that his inex­pe­ri­enced attor­neys failed to ade­quate­ly rep­re­sent him at tri­al. Wiggins’ orig­i­nal lawyers made no attempt to inform mem­bers of the jury that sent Wiggins to death row that their client was repeat­ed­ly raped, beat­en and denied food as a child, and that his moth­er burned his hands on the stove as pun­ish­ment. In an opin­ion authored by Justice Sandra Day…

by Ira SaletanFriends Committee on Legislation of Californiareprinted from the FCL Newsletter, June 2003…

The fol­low­ing syn­op­sis was tak­en from the now-defunct www​.lar​ry​ro​bi​son​.org…

CONGRESSWOMAN ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON JOINS DC TEENS FOR SUMMIT ON CAPITAL…

May 26,…

May 19,…

The Missouri Supreme Court recent­ly over­turned the cap­i­tal con­vic­tion of Joseph Amrine, a death row inmate accused of killing a fel­low pris­on­er 17 years ago. The Court found ​“clear and con­vinc­ing evi­dence of actu­al inno­cence that under­mines con­fi­dence” in Amrine’s con­vic­tion (Supreme Court of Missouri, SC84656, April 29, 2003). In a 4 – 3 deci­sion the Court ordered that Amrine be con­di­tion­al­ly dis­charged 30 days from the date the man­date issues in this case unless the state elects to file new…