Publications & Testimony

The United Kingdom’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s Human Rights Annual Report 2003 includes a review of Britain’s official actions to address concerns about the application of the death penalty in the United States. In addition to an outline of the U.K.’s reaction to significant death penalty developments in the U.S., the report highlights the sharp difference between British and U.S. capital punishment policies. It states: The UK Government opposes the death penalty and its use on British…

An 8‑part series titled “Murder, Race, Justice: The State vs. Darryl Hunt” examines the case against Darryl Hunt, who has been in prison in North Carolina for nearly 20 years despite credible evidence of his innocence. The series concludes a six-month investigation conducted by The Winston-Salem Journal that found that police used questionable tactics and unreliable witnesses to convict Hunt for the 1984 rape and murder of reporter Deborah Sykes. It also reveals that instead of reinvestigating…

In his latest book, “Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer’s Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty,” attorney and author Scott Turow provides a detailed look at his personal journey with the death penalty issue from his days as a federal prosecutor to his more recent service as a member of the Illinois Commission on Capital Punishment. In addition to Turow’s first-hand account, the book analyzes the potential reasons for and against the death penalty, discusses its impact on victims’ families…

In a report examining Virginia’s death penalty system, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has urged the state to enact a moratorium on executions until its flawed capital punishment system is reformed. The report, “Broken Justice: The Death Penalty in Virginia,” reviews issues such as the quality of defense counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, racial bias, innocence, and the execution of those with mental retardation and juvenile offenders. The findings, which were endorsed by a coalition…

Psychiatrist Cynthia Smith, who served as a key witness in the 1990 death penalty case against John Daniels of North Carolina, has recanted her testimony because state prosecutors withheld important information from her. “My testimony was erroneous with gross errors. Not only did the prosecution fail to give me all the relevant information, I did not look for the information either,” White said in an affidavit about the testimony she gave in her first and only capital case. She added, “John…

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released its yearly report on capital punishment on November 4, 2003. The figures reported were for the year 2002. (See also DPIC’s Year End Report 2002). The BJS reported that death sentences in the U.S. have declined for four straight years, dropping by almost 50% since 1998. DPIC will release a report with 2003 figures in mid-December 2003. Read Capital Punishment, 2002.

In a Seattle Times op-ed reflecting on the plea agreement for serial killer Gary Ridgway resulting in a life without parole sentence (read more), Washington State Superior Court Judge David A. Nichols stated that the “death penalty as a response to any criminal behavior no longer has validity and should be repealed, because it is impossible to administer with justice and fairness.” He further noted: We are a nation of laws, ideally applied fairly and proportionally; but we have 50 different…

Evidence from a capital murder case and seven other cases tested for DNA by the Houston Police Department’s crime lab have been destroyed. The District Attorney’s office said that it may have to ask for pardons in these cases if the defendants were convicted largely on the weight of DNA evidence. “We’re going to have to alert the judges and the defense attorneys and evaluate each case to see what we have got to support the conviction without the DNA. If DNA played a large role, I may be writing…

A review of death penalty defense policies in Texas has uncovered widespread noncompliance with state laws that require each region to adopt qualification standards for capital defense attorneys. Only two of the nine judicial regions in Texas have adopted the standards. A report on the findings has been published by the Equal Justice Center, a Texas organization that advocates for greater fairness in the justice system, and the Texas Defender Service, an organization dedicated to improving the…