Entries tagged with “Future dangerousness

Policy Issues

Intellectual Disability

,

Race

,

Representation

,

Dec 31, 2000

A State of Denial: Texas Justice and the Death Penalty

A State of Denial: Texas Justice and the Death Penalty Texas Defender Service* Executive Summary The nation is embroiled in a debate over the death penal­ty. Each day brings fresh accounts of racial bias, incom­pe­tent coun­sel, an…

Facts & Research

Recent Legislative Activity

,

May 28, 2019

Amended Bill to Limit Oregon’s Death Penalty Easily Passes State Senate

An amend­ed bill to nar­row the cir­cum­stances in which the death penal­ty may be imposed in Oregon has eas­i­ly passed the state sen­ate. On May 21, 2019, by a vote of 18 – 9, the Oregon Senate passed SB 1013, whic…

Aug 20, 2004

Broad Spectrum of Citizens Seeks Clemency in Upcoming Texas Execution

A broad spec­trum of the pub­lic is seek­ing clemen­cy for Texas death row inmate James Allridge, who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on Thursday, August 26th. Among those point­ing to Allridge’s reha­bil­i­ta­tion as the basis for mer­cy are four of the ori…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

,

Mental Illness

,

Representation

,

Native Americans

,

May 03, 2021

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of April 262021

NEWS (4/​29/​21) — Oklahoma: The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has vacat­ed the con­vic­tions and death sen­tences of two more death-row pris­on­ers who, the court found, had com­mit­ted their offens­es against Native Americans on trib­al lands. …

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

,

Intellectual Disability

,

Representation

,

Sentencing Alternatives

,

Jun 07, 2021

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of May 312021

NEWS (6/​4/​21) — Arizona: The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2016 deci­sion in Lynch v. Arizona, which struck down the state’s uncon­sti­tu­tion­al refusal to instruct cap­i­tal-sen­tenc­ing juries that defend…

Jan 08, 2001

Death Trip: The American Way of Execution (Part I)

THE NATION By ROBERT SHERILL Part 1 of 2 Capital pun­ish­ment is to the rest of all law as sur­re­al­ism is to real­ism. It destroys the log­ic of the pro­fes­sion.” — Norman Mailer, The Executioner’s Song…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

,

Race

,

Dec 08, 2016

Experts Say Texas’ Future Dangerousness Concept Is Based on Junk Science

Since 1973, juries in Texas have had to deter­mine whether a defen­dant presents a future dan­ger to soci­ety before impos­ing a death sen­tence. But while they have found that each of the 244 men and women cur­rent­ly on the state’s deat…

Jun 11, 2000

Flawed Trials Lead to Death Chamber

Chicago Tribune By STEVE MILLS, KEN ARMSTRONG and DOUGLAS HOLT Tribune Staff Writers First of two parts. AUSTIN, Texas — Under Gov. George W. Bush, Texas has exe­cut­ed dozens of Death Row inmates whose cas­es were comprom…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

,

Innocence

,

Aug 31, 2009

INNOCENCE: Trial by Fire: Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?”

In a thor­ough and pen­e­trat­ing arti­cle pub­lished in The New Yorker on August 31, David Grann offers fur­ther evi­dence that Texas prob­a­bly exe­cut­ed an inno­cent man in 2004. Grann care­ful­ly exam­ines all the e…

Facts & Research

Crimes Punishable by Death

,

Sep 14, 2016

Jeffrey Wood and the Texas Law of Parties

Today, DPIC launch­es a new pod­cast series, Discussions With DPIC,” which will fea­ture month­ly, unscript­ed con­ver­sa­tions with death penal­ty experts on a wide vari­ety of top­ics. The inau­gur­al episode fea­tures a con­ver­sa­tion between Texas Defender S…

Policy Issues

Juveniles

,

Race

,

Clemency

,

Upcoming Executions

,

Federal Death Penalty

,

Dec 08, 2020

Jurors and Appellate Prosecutor Say Teen Offender Brandon Bernard Should Not be Executed

As the December 10, 2020 exe­cu­tion date of fed­er­al death-row pris­on­er Brandon Bernard (pic­tured with his fam­i­ly) approached, jurors and a for­mer pros­e­cu­tor in his case came for­ward say­ing that the teen offender’s life should be sp…

Policy Issues

Intellectual Disability

,

Mental Illness

,

Sentencing Data

,

Executions Overview

,

Oct 08, 2018

Law Review: Junk Mental Health Science and the Texas Death Penalty

Junk sci­ence is enabling and per­pet­u­at­ing grave mis­car­riages of jus­tice” in Texas death-penal­ty cas­es. So con­cludes Professor James Acker in his arti­cle, Snake Oil With A Bite: The Lethal Veneer of Science an…

Policy Issues

Juveniles

,

United States Supreme Court

,

Jun 23, 2020

Neuroscience Experts: Brain Science Shows Texas’ Use of Future Dangerousness to Sentence Those Under 21 to Death is Unreliable, Unconstitutional

Three pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions and eight prac­ti­tion­ers in the fields of neu­ro­science and neu­ropsy­chol­o­gy have joined a Texas death-row pris­on­er in chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s use of future dan­ger­ous­ness” find­ings to impose …

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

,

Crimes Punishable by Death

,

Sep 14, 2016

New Podcast: Jeffery Wood and the Texas Law of Parties, With Expert Guest Kate Black

Today, DPIC launch­es a new pod­cast series, Discussions With DPIC,” which will fea­ture month­ly, unscript­ed con­ver­sa­tions with death penal­ty experts on a wide vari­ety of top­ics. The inau­gur­al episode fea­tures a con­ver­sa­tion between Texas Defender S…

Mar 31, 2004

New Study from Texas Defender Service

NEW STUDY BY TEXAS DEFENDER SERVICE Read Deadly Speculation — Misleading Texas Capital Juries with False Predictions of Future Dangerousness (PDF), a new repor…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

,

New Voices

,

Dec 28, 2011

NEW VOICES: Texas Judge Rules State Death Penalty Unconstitutional

On December 19, Dallas District Court Judge Teresa Hawthorne held that Texas’s death penal­ty was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al because it could lead to death sen­tences that were arbi­trar­i­ly sought and obtained. In rul­ing in favor of a defense …

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

,

Mental Illness

,

Apr 02, 2020

STUDIES — Junk Psychological Science Continues to Infect Death-Penalty Determinations

Courts are fail­ing bad­ly in keep­ing junk psy­cho­log­i­cal sci­ence out of the court­room in crim­i­nal cas­es, per­mit­ting the admis­sion of psy­cho­log­i­cal tests that have nev­er been reviewed for reli­a­bil­i­ty and oth­ers that have been found unre­li­able, a rece…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

,

Race

,

United States Supreme Court

,

Mar 19, 2019

Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Georgia Death-Penalty Case Involving Racist Juror

For the sec­ond time in just over one month, the United States Supreme Court has cleared the way for the exe­cu­tion of an African-American pris­on­er in the face of strong evi­dence of racial or reli­gious bias. On March 18, 2019, the C…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

,

Race

,

Nov 20, 2013

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Denies New Hearing for Duane Buck

In a 6 – 3 deci­sion on November 20, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied a request from death row inmate Duane Buck for a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing, despite the fact that racial­ly prej­u­di­cial state­ments had been …

Policy Issues

Race

,

Jun 28, 2017

The Duane Buck Case

Christina Swarns, lit­i­ga­tion direc­tor of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, speaks with DPIC Executive Director Robert Dunham about the case of Texas death-row pris­on­er Duane Buck and the impact of racial bias on deter­mi­na­tions of future …

Policy Issues

Mental Illness

,

Representation

,

Upcoming Executions

,

Women

,

Federal Death Penalty

,

Oct 19, 2020

U.S. Government Sets Two More Execution Dates, Seeking to Put to Death the First Woman and the Youngest Offender in More Than Six Decades

The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment intends to con­tin­ue its unprece­dent­ed exe­cu­tion spree into December, sched­ul­ing the exe­cu­tions of the first woman and the youngest offend­er put to death by fed­er­al author­i­ties in near­ly sev­en decades. In a Friday evening ann…