Publications & Testimony

After 16 years on death row, Darnell Williams was 3 days from execution when then Governor Frank O’Bannon issued a reprieve to allow the genetic testing of droplets of blood found on Williams’ shorts after the shooting. Recently released test results support Williams’ claim that he wasn’t present when a Gary, Indiana couple was fatally shot 17 years ago. Thomas Vanes, the prosecutor at Williams’ 1986 trial, now says that Williams should not be executed. He said, “I agree now that this is not a…

A list containing the names of 169 members of the U.S. military who were executed between 1942 and 1961 was recently discovered at the Pentagon. The list also contains a few dozen additional cases where persons were sentenced to death, but not executed, and the names of 7 German prisoners of war who were executed. The 1961 execution of Pvt. John Bennett, who was hung after convictions for rape and attempted murder, was the military’s last execution. The ledger also includes the name of Pvt.

Members of New Jersey’s legislature have passed by a wide margin a bipartisan bill calling for the creation of a study commission to examine the cost, fairness and effects of capital prosecutions in that state. The bill had the support of key state legislators, including Republican Senator Robert Martin. Martin said that he believed it might be time for New Jersey to consider a complete ban on capital punishment, noting that the state’s review process “is so cumbersome and expensive” that New…

A report in the Polk County (Florida) Lakeland Ledger examined the financial impact of costly capital trials on states that are struggling to make ends meet. The report noted that death penalty cases negatively impact county governments because the hundreds of thousands of dollars that is spent annually on capital cases takes away funding from crucial indigent care programs and other important services. As an example, the paper notes, “Take the case of Tavares Wright. The legal bill stands at…

Kansas Death Penalty Cost Report Summary by Death Penalty Information Center The State of Kansas recently issued a report estimating the costs of the death penalty in that state: “Performance Audit Report: Costs Incurred for Death Penalty Cases: A K‑GOAL Audit of the Department of Corrections,” (December 2003). Conclusions The estimated cost of a death penalty case was 70% more than the cost of a comparable non-death penalty case. Death penalty case costs were counted through to execution…

Anthony Maurice Bone will become the sixth North Carolina death row inmate to have his sentence commuted to life in prison due to a 2001 state law banning the execution of individuals with mental retardation. The state defines as mentally retarded anyone with an IQ of 70 or below who also has significant impairment in at least two of ten life activities, such as communicating and taking care of themselves. The law requires that defendants show signs of retardation before they turn 18. The U.S.

During a recent appearance on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” comedian Bill Cosby addressed capital punishment and his experience as the father of a murdered child. Cosby noted: “And when they said, ‘Do you want, you know, the death penalty?’ My wife was the first one. She said no. No, it’s not for us to deal with the obvious. And my thought was, ‘Hey man. They could poison, they could strap 1,000 of these people in the chair.” Larry King: “Isn’t going to bring him back.” (CNN.com Transcripts…

Four stays were granted for executions that were scheduled to take place this week in Texas and Georgia, and Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board unanimously recommended clemency for a foreign national facing execution in January 2004. In Texas, courts ordered three stays of execution. Two of the cases involved challenges to the use of pancuronium bromide as part of the state’s lethal injection process. A third case, that of Bobby Lee Hines, was stayed on the basis of a mental retardation claim.

A series of public opinion polls reveals that only about a third of Americans support the death penalty as applied to those who are under the age of 18 at the time of their crime. Recent survey results include the following: A fall 2001 National Opinion Research Center poll found that while 62% of respondents favored the death penalty in general, only 34% supported the execution of juvenile offenders. In a series of follow-up questions that further probed respondents about their positions, it…

Twenty-six years ago, Bill Wiseman drafted the first lethal-injection law in U.S. history, forever changing the way most death penalty states administer executions. He now says that guilt compelled him to draft the legislation after voting to reinstate the death penalty in Oklahoma despite the fact that he had always been an opponent of capital punishment. At the time, Wiseman was a first-term lawmaker in Oklahoma’s assembly, and he knew opposing the state’s 1976 measure to bring back capital…