Publications & Testimony

Items: 6411 — 6420


Dec 31, 1999

International News and Developments: 1999 – 1998

On December 27th, 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,…

Read More

Sep 15, 1999

Historic Illinois Hearings Address Innocence and the Death Penalty

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 Lawrence…

Read More

Aug 01, 1999

United States Supreme Court Decisions: 1998 — 1999 Term

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 instruc­tions to the jury in…

Read More