Publications & Testimony

On December 27^th, Turkmenistan became the first of the five for­mer Soviet Central Asian republics to abol­ish the death penal­ty. The peo­ple’s coun­cil passed a res­o­lu­tion amend­ing the con­sti­tu­tion and remov­ing the death penal­ty.​“Now in our coun­try nei­ther the gov­ern­ment nor any­one else has the right to take away human life,” said Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov. (Reuters,…

Speech giv­en by Former Florida Chief…

Message from Mary Robinson: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to the Press Conference Organized by the Death Penalty Information CenterNew York City, USATuesday,…

Following a series of cel­e­brat­ed releas­es of inno­cent defen­dants from its death row, Illinois’s House of Representatives held hear­ings to address the state’s sys­tem of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment on September 15 & 16, 1999. Among those who tes­ti­fied were Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking; Mike Farrell, actor and human rights activist; Renny Cushing, Director of Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation; Bryan Stevenson, Director of Equal Justice Initiative; Professor…

HISTORIC ILLINOIS HEARINGS ADDRESS INNOCENCE AND THE…

Jones v. U.S., 97 – 9361, The Court, review­ing the sen­tenc­ing pro­vi­sions of the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 for the first time, held that jurors in death penal­ty cas­es do not have to be told about the con­se­quences of their fail­ing to agree on whether life or death is the appro­pri­ate sen­tence. The sen­tenc­ing pro­vi­sions of the Federal Death Penalty Act allow for three sen­tenc­ing options: death, life with­out parole and a less­er sen­tence. The Court’s…

Pictures of Allen Davis, the last per­son to be exe­cut­ed by the elec­tric chair in Florida, July…

By SYDNEY…

By SYDNEY…

By SYDNEY…