Publications & Testimony

Three stays of execution were issued on February 4^th in cases in Florida, Texas, and Pennsylvania. The United States Supreme Court briefly stayed an execution in Florida to examine the appeal from Johnny Robinson. However, the Court voted 5 – 4 to allow the execution to take place. In Pennsylvania, the March 11 execution of Kenneth Miller was stayed by a Philadelphia court. In Texas, a 60-day stay was granted to Scott Panetti who was to be executed February 5. Panetti, who in the decade prior to…

Washington Post February 3, 2004 Editorial AT FIRST GLANCE, the Supreme Court’s decision to reconsider whether the juvenile death penalty violates the Constitution may seem to be good news for opponents of capital punishment. In 1989 the high court, in the case of Stanford v. Kentucky, upheld the practice of executing people for crimes they committed when they were 16 or 17. Now the justices want another look, just as they recently took another look at — and banned — execution of the…

In his book “Still Surviving,” Nanon Williams (pictured right), who was 17 at the time of the crime that placed him on death row, provides a first hand account of living under a sentence of death in Texas. The book details Williams’s journey from teenage boy to adulthood while living in the shadow of the nation’s busiest execution chamber. His text introduces readers to the experiences of solitary confinement and having friends executed, as well as to maintaining relationships with those on the…

Just hours after a judge ordered that a death sentence handed down in federal court in Massachusetts be carried out in New Hampshire, the N.H. House Democratic Leader, Peter Burling, said the state should renew its consideration of legislation to repeal the death penalty. “I think the issue is so profoundly divisive and so completely founded on people’s core values that there be some response,” said Burling. “I think most of us believed we’d never see an execution in New Hampshire. It’s easy to…

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has proposed a constitutional amendment to reinstate the death penalty after nearly a century without it. The idea has been met with some firm resistance from state lawmakers, including criticism from Representative Keith Ellison, who noted, “The death penalty serves no legitimate purpose. It’s applied unfairly, falling disproportionately on the poor, people of color and, in too many cases, on the innocent. It’s also a budget buster, sapping resources from…

In 2003, California juries sent 16 individuals to death row, the lowest number since 1985 and a dramatic decline from 1999’s total of 42 new death sentences. Some believe the decline is evidence of prosecutors being more selective in seeking death convictions, as well as the public’s skepticism about the capital punishment system. Robert Pugsley, a professor at Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, noted, “I think that (incidences of wrongfully convicted death row inmates) has…

The Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty has issued a new report, “Questioning a Broken System: Capital Punishment in Illinois in 2003,” an in-depth review of capital punishment in Illinois following actions by the former governor and the legislature to address systemic flaws in the state’s death penalty system. The report notes that prosecutors continue to aggressively seek the death penalty, but public skepticism is growing over the use of capital punishment. For example, 80% of…

Greensboro (NC) News and Record January 30, 2004 Editorial Five prisoners on North Carolina’s death row are among the 73 inmates in America who will anxiously await a U.S. Supreme Court decision. The prisoners were under 18 years old when they committed murder. This week the nation’s highest court agreed to review whether the U.S. Constitution permits juveniles to be executed. The court will decide if those who were 16 or 17 years old when they committed murder can be given the death…

Detroit Free Press January 30, 2004 Editorial Even death penalty supporters should applaud the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to consider ending the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes. The arguments against executing adults are compelling enough. They should be absolutely decisive against the execution of teens and children in any decent society. The high court has already laid the legal and philosophic groundwork for ending this shameful practice. It…

Arizona Daily Star JANUARY 29, 2004 “Executing Young Offenders” Public sentiment and state practices are leading the way, and now the Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether criminals can be executed if they committed their crimes when they were 16 and 17 years old. The court agreed to hear an appeal from the Missouri Supreme Court. That court ruled last year that executing Christopher Simmons, now 27, would amount to a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s provision against “cruel and…