Publications & Testimony

Although New York Law School Professor Robert Blecker and Columbia Law School Professor James Liebman frequently take opposing sides in public debates on the death penalty, the two men recently revealed their “common ground” through a co-authored opinion column in the Houston Chronicle. Calling on legislators in Texas and elsewhere to enact a series of death penalty reforms to ensure accuracy and improve fairness, Blecker and Liebman noted: Despite our different perspectives, we agree that…

A recent Fox News poll found that 69% of Americans favor the death penalty for persons convicted of premeditated murder, a drop of 7 percentage points from the number of respondents supporting capital punishment in 1997. The poll revealed that 23% of respondents opposed capital punishment, and 8% were not sure. In previous years, support for the death penalty registered 76% in 1997, 74% in 1998, 68% in 2000, and 2001. (Fox News, June 10, 2003). See Public Opinion.

The British Court of Appeal has overturned George Kelly’s 1950 murder conviction more than half a century after Kelly was executed for the murder of a Liverpool movie theater manager. In his ruling, Judge Bernard Rix called the conviction “a miscarriage of justice which must be deeply regretted” and noted that the case against Kelly was entirely circumstantial and lacked any forensic evidence. The case was reexamined after new evidence of Kelly’s innocence emerged in 1991. The Criminal Cases…

U.S. Magistrate Jerry Davis has found that the way inmates are treated on Mississippi’s death row constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Noting that the death row at Patchman prison is so harsh and filthy that inmates are being driven insane, Davis stated, “No one in a civilized society should be forced to live under conditions that force exposure to another person’s bodily wastes. No matter how heinous the crime committed, there is no excuse for such…

On May 28^th, Virginia is scheduled to electrocute Percy Levar Walton, a Virginia death row inmate who does not know what year it is or that he cannot eat at Burger King once he has been executed. In a pending clemency petition to Virginia Governor Mark Warner and in an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Walton’s attorneys presented expert medical evidence, including tests by prison doctors, showing that their client suffers from schizophrenia and psychosis. They note that prison guards call…

In “Forced Medication of Legally Incompetent Prisoners: A Primer,” Kathy Swedlow uses cases such as Singleton v. Norris to examine the legal background and heated debate surrounding the issue of involuntary treatment of death row prisoners to make them sane enough for execution. Swedlow notes that many of those who support capital punishment find the holding in Singleton (which allows forcible medication) unsettling. She concludes that “even assuming Singelton’s guilt, the forcible medication…

Dave Lindorff’s article “Unjust Executions” goes beyond the issue of innocence and explores cases where guilty defendants may have been executed despite unconstitutional trials. The article, available on Salon.com (May 6, 2003), features examples of courts barring new evidence and comments from death penalty experts such as Robert Blecker of New York Law School, a staunch death penalty advocate, who nevertheless admits that: “There are definitely plenty of sentencing errors where those who die…

The Texas Senate passed legislation (S.B. 1045) to create a joint interim committee on post-conviction exonerations. The committee will study wrongful convictions in the state and identify appropriate improvements in the criminal justice system to prevent such errors in the future. The nine members of the committee will include a state’s attoney, two members chosen from the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, two members of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, a judge, and two law…

Kentucky Governor Paul Patton said that he will commute the death sentence of Kevin Stanford, a juvenile offender whose 1989 case before the U.S. Supreme Court resulted in a ruling allowing the execution of those who were 16 or 17-years-old at the time of their crime. This will be the first time Patton has commuted a death sentence since he took office, and he noted in his announcement that the justice system “perpetuated an injustice” in Stanford’s case. Stanford has been on Kentucky’s death…

Juries in 15 of the last 16 federal capital trials have declined to impose the death penalty, despite a more aggressive pursuit of this punishment by the Justice Department. Since President George Bush took office, 15% of the capital trials have resulted in death sentences, compared to 46% of cases in which the death penalty was sought from 1988 to 2000. Legal experts believe that overreaching by prosecutors and some jurors’ growing unease with the death penalty may account for the trend.