Publications & Testimony

In a ruling that could affect nearly every death row inmate in the state, the North Carolina Supreme Court has upheld the practice of using indictments without aggravating factors in murder cases. The ruling came in the case of death row inmate Henry Lee Hunt. Hunt’s attorneys had argued that, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Ring v. Arizona, failure to include aggravating factors in first-degree murder indictments is a violation of the due process clause of the 14^th Amendment.

“The Execution of Wanda Jean,” an HBO documentary directed by Liz Garbus of Moxie Firecracker Films, and a series of news articles by the staff of the York Daily Record, including extensive coverage of the release of Pennsylvania native Ray Krone from Arizona’s death row, will receive honors during the Death Penalty Information Center’s (DPIC) Seventh Annual Thurgood Marshall Journalism Awards at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The program will also feature keynote remarks from…

Brian Deegan, a magistrate in South Australia who lost his son in the October 2002 Sari nightclub bombing in Bali, recently stated that he believes the terrorists who commited that crime should not receive the death penalty, but should be sentenced to a term of life in prison without parole. In an opinion piece in The Australian, Deegan noted: The Bali bombers who murdered my son last October are evil extremists, but they don’t deserve the death penalty. … Indeed, I have no problem with the…

As the Texas legislative session came to a close, criminal justice reform advocates gave lawmakers a failing grade for their work in addressing problems in the state’s legal system. Senator Rodney Ellis of Houston joined an array of legal experts to criticize the state legislators’ inability to pass measures to end the execution of juvenile offenders, to strengthen the consular notification process for foreign nationals, and to require the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to hold a hearing…

Charles B. Blackmar, senior judge of Missouri’s Supreme Court from 1982 – 1992, recently called for consideration of abolishing the death penalty. In a letter to the editor that appeared in the Kansas City Star, Blackmar stated: Most nations that share our political and cultural traditions have done away with the death penalty. The nations that still have capital punishment include China, North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and, before the American invasion, Iraq. I am not aware of any nation…

The Legislative Coordinating Council of Kansas, a group of legislative leaders who represent the Kansas legislature when it’s not in session, recently authorized committees to study three aspects of the state’s capital punishment law this summer. Among the topics under review are the cost of imposing the death penalty, the state’s funding of the Board of Indigents’ Defense Services and its Death Penalty Unit, and the effectiveness of laws to ensure that mentally ill defendants are not executed.

The ACLU Capital Punishment Project recently released “Three Decades Later: Why We Need A Temporary Halt on Executions,” a report that comes just over 30 years after the Supreme Court’s Furman v. Georgia decision that placed a temporary halt on executions because the death penalty was being applied in an arbitrary, discriminatory, and capricious manner. While the Supreme Court upheld state capital punishment statutes written after Furman in its 1976 Gregg v. Georgia decision, the report notes…

The American Bar Association (ABA) has voiced support for legislation to impose a two-year moratorium on executions in North Carolina while the state studies its death penalty. In its announcement, the ABA noted a “growing consensus within the legal community that North Carolina urgently needs a moratorium on executions until it evaluates issues of fairness, due process and possible racial bias in its death penalty system.” The bill, which was recently passed by the North Carolina Senate, is…

Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford said that criminal defendants in Texas are at the mercy of prosecutors in an unfair system that emphasizes winning rather than justice. Bradford said that he believes there is sufficient probable cause to convene a court of inquiry to investigate the entire Police Department crime lab, not just the DNA portion (see below). Bradford also voiced support for changes that would help to balance the Texas justice system, which he believes currently works in favor of…

As Kansas lawmakers struggle to make ends meet, some are calling for an examination of the costs associated with capital punishment. Senators Steve Morris and Anthony Hensley have opposing views on the death penalty, but the men recently joined forces to propose an audit of the state’s death penalty. Among other items, the audit will review $9 million in expenses filed by the Board of Indigents’ Defense Services between 1995 – 2002. The funding was used to defend those facing capital charges.