Publications & Testimony

“Capital Punishment 2001″ — The Bureau of Justice Statistics released its annu­al report on the death penal­ty with sta­tis­tics from the pre­vi­ous year. The report con­tained a num­ber of interesting…

Clemency Often Used in the Past to Remedy Injustice In a recent arti­cle in the Chicago Tribune, law Professor Daniel Kobil exam­ined his­tor­i­cal uses of the…

High Cost of the Death…

NOTE: The statutes list­ed in this chart were all passed pri­or to the United States Supreme Court Ruling in Atkins v. Virginia. During this time peri­od, intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty was referred to as…

International Community Praises Governor…

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Atkins v. Virginia that exe­cut­ing inmates with​“men­tal retar­da­tion” was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Some inmates with claims of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty have been exe­cut­ed since then, but they are not included…

Tennessee Supreme Court Finds Execution of Mentally Retarded…

On December 10, 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court dis­missed with­out decid­ing the case of Abu-Ali Abdur’Rahman, who is on death row in Tennessee. The Court heard argu­ments in the case on November 6, 2002, but declined to issue a rul­ing. Justice Stevens dis­sent­ed from the…

Illinois Governor Pardons Four…

Another Judge Rules Federal Death Penalty Unconstitutional​“MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A fed­er­al judge declared the fed­er­al death penal­ty uncon­sti­tu­tion­al Tuesday in the sec­ond such rul­ing in less…