Entries tagged with “Law Enforcement”

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Nov 12, 2021

South Carolina Execution-Team Members Talk of Debilitating Emotional Toll of Capital Punishment, Former Warden Calls Death Penalty ​‘Inequitable’

South Carolina cor­rec­tion­al staff who par­tic­i­pat­ed in exe­cu­tions suf­fered life-alter­ing trau­ma that was wors­ened by an inflex­i­ble prison admin­is­tra­tion that pro­vid­ed lit­tle sup­port to address the psy­cho­log­i­cal injuries they sus­tained. Two senior staff mem­bers are now on dis­abil­i­ty, unable to work, and are suf­fer­ing from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Depression. A third mem­ber of the exe­cu­tion team end­ed his own life by…

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Federal Death Penalty

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Nov 13, 2019

Former State and Federal Judges, Prosecutors, and Law Enforcement Officials and Families of Murder Victims Urge Federal Government to Call Off Executions

Hundreds of for­mer state and fed­er­al judges, pros­e­cu­tors, law enforce­ment and cor­rec­tions offi­cials, and fam­i­ly mem­bers of homi­cide vic­tims have signed on to a series of let­ters urg­ing the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to halt the five fed­er­al exe­cu­tions sched­uled for December 2019 and January 2020. In four sep­a­rate let­ters addressed to President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr, 175 fam­i­ly mem­bers of mur­der vic­tims, 65 for­mer state and fed­er­al judges, 59 cur­rent and for­mer state and…

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Federal Death Penalty

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Aug 05, 2019

Former National Corrections Chief Warns of Dangers Federal Execution Plan Poses for Prison Personnel

A for­mer high-rank­ing fed­er­al cor­rec­tions offi­cial has warned that the fed­er­al government’s plan to exe­cute five pris­on­ers over a five-week peri­od in December and January risks seri­ous­ly trau­ma­tiz­ing cor­rec­tion­al work­ers. Allen Ault (pic­tured) is a for­mer chief of the Justice Department’s National Institute of Corrections who also served as cor­rec­tions com­mis­sion­er in Georgia, Mississippi, and Colorado, and as chair­man of the Florida Department of Corrections. In a July 31, 2019 op-ed in…

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Feb 07, 2019

THE ARTS: Death-Penalty Film, ​‘Clemency,’ Wins Sundance Festival Best Drama Award

Clemency, a film explor­ing the psy­cho­log­i­cal toll of the death penal­ty, has been award­ed the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for Drama at the pres­ti­gious Sundance Film Festival on February 2, 2019. The movie, writ­ten and direct­ed by Nigerian-American film­mak­er Chinonye Chukwu, tells the sto­ry of prison war­den Bernadine Williams (por­trayed by Alfre Woodard) as she pre­pares to over­see her 12th exe­cu­tion in the after­math of a botched execution.

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Deterrence

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New Voices

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Jan 04, 2019

NEW VOICES: Retiring Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Predicts End of Death Penalty

As he pre­pared for retire­ment, the long-time direc­tor of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said he does not sup­port the death penal­ty and believes the pun­ish­ment is on its way out in Georgia and across the coun­try. In a tele­vi­sion inter­view on his final day of work as GBI direc­tor, Vernon Keenan (pic­tured) told WXIA-TV, Atlanta’s NBC tele­vi­sion affil­i­ate, that he has ​“nev­er believed in the death penal­ty” and “[t]he day will come when we won’t have the…

Facts & Research

Clemency

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New Voices

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Jun 14, 2018

Retired Warden, Former Judge and Prosecutor Urge Ohio to Grant Clemency to Raymond Tibbetts

The Ohio Parole Board held a hear­ing on June 14, 2018 to con­sid­er clemen­cy for death-row pris­on­er Raymond Tibbetts, whose February 13 exe­cu­tion was halt­ed by Governor John Kasich to con­sid­er a juror’s request that Tibbets be spared. Ross Geiger, one of the twelve jurors who sen­tenced Tibbetts to death in 1997, wrote to Governor Kasich on January 30 express­ing ​“deep con­cerns” about a ​“very flawed” tri­al and say­ing he ​“would not have…

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Nov 07, 2017

NEW VOICES: Former Law Enforcement Officials Say Arizona, Kansas Should End Death Penalty

Former high-rank­ing law enforce­ment offi­cials from Arizona and Kansas have called on their states to end the death penal­ty. In sep­a­rate op-ed sto­ries one week apart, for­mer Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard (pic­tured, left) and for­mer Kansas Secretary of Corrections Roger Werholtz (pic­tured, right) con­clude that the cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment schemes in their states have failed and should be aban­doned. In a November 5 op-ed in…

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Innocence

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New Voices

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Jul 12, 2016

NEW VOICES: Former FBI Agent Now Opposes Death Penalty, Seeks Exoneration of California Death Row Prisoner Kevin Cooper

During his 45 years in law enforce­ment, includ­ing 24 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, homi­cide inves­ti­ga­tor Tom Parker (pic­tured) changed his view on the death penal­ty. ​“There were times dur­ing my career when I would glad­ly have pushed the but­ton on a mur­der­er,” he said. ​“Today, my posi­tion would be, life with­out parole.” Parker says that see­ing cor­rupt homi­cide inves­ti­ga­tions con­vinced him that inno­cent peo­ple could be exe­cut­ed. As result, he now opposes…

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Innocence

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Jan 22, 2016

NEW VOICES: Retired Colorado Corrections Officer Raises Questions of Deterrence, Innocence

In a recent op-ed for The Denver Post, retired cor­rec­tions offi­cer and mil­i­tary vet­er­an Pete Lister offered a cri­tique of the death penal­ty, say­ing it fails as a deter­rent, risks exe­cut­ing inno­cent peo­ple, and costs more than life with­out parole. ​“Capital pun­ish­ment has not, in a sin­gle state, proven to be a deter­rent to cap­i­tal crime.” Lister said. ​“Society con­sists of human beings who make mis­takes. There are those who are, occa­sion­al­ly, neg­li­gent, and some who are even dishonest…

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Dec 08, 2008

NEW VOICES: Law Enforcement Officer Changed Views Because of Death Penalty’s Risks

Michael May served as a Baltimore City police offi­cer and as a mil­i­tary police offi­cer. He for­mer­ly sup­port­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, but changed his stance upon learn­ing of inno­cent peo­ple who had been sen­tenced to death. Mr. May tes­ti­fied ear­li­er this yar before the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment. He recent­ly pub­lished an op-ed in the Baltimore Examiner explain­ing how his views changed and why he sup­ports for repeal of Maryland’s death penal­ty. The full…

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Innocence

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Clemency

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New Voices

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Nov 17, 2008

NEW VOICES: 30 FBI Agents Call for Pardon in VA Case with Death Penalty Implications

On November 10 in Richmond, Virginia, thir­ty for­mer FBI agents held a press con­fer­ence call­ing for the par­don of four sailors, known as the Norfolk Four, who were con­vict­ed of rape and mur­der. Their con­vic­tions were based main­ly on their own con­fes­sions, which were appar­ent­ly made out of fear that they might oth­er­wise receive the death penal­ty. The FBI agents point­ed out that DNA and foren­sic evi­dence now points to a prison inmate who has con­fessed as the sole per­pe­tra­tor of the crimes. They…

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Deterrence

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Oct 02, 2008

NEW VOICES: Former San Quentin Warden Says Death Penalty ​“Detracts cru­cial resources from pro­grams that could tru­ly make our communities safe”

The for­mer war­den of San Quentin prison in California, Jeanne Woodford, regrets hav­ing tak­en part in exe­cu­tions and has called for replac­ing the death penal­ty with life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. In an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Woodford notes that after each exe­cu­tion, ​“some­one on the staff would ask, ​‘Is the world safer because of what we did tonight?’ We knew the answer: No.” The full arti­cle can be found…

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Mar 31, 2008

NEW VOICES: Law Enforcement Officials Say ​“California’s death penal­ty is broken”

On March 28, two let­ters were sent to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice–one from mem­bers of the law enforce­ment com­mu­ni­ty and the oth­er from judges, rais­ing con­cerns about the state’s death penal­ty. Thirty law enforce­ment offi­cers, includ­ing cur­rent and for­mer pros­e­cu­tors, police chiefs and oth­er offi­cers, signed a let­ter stat­ing that ​“California’s death penal­ty is bro­ken.” The let­ter cites mul­ti­ple rea­sons why the state’s death…

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Jan 21, 2008

NEW VOICES: Police Chief Says ​“The death penal­ty isn’t any­where on my list”

In an op-ed in the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, police chief James Abbott stat­ed that the death penal­ty is bro­ken beyond repair and that the extra mon­ey spent pur­su­ing exe­cu­tions could be bet­ter spent on crime pre­ven­tion and the needs of vic­tims. Abbott is the Police Chief of West Orange, New Jersey, and he served on the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission. He was a long­time sup­port­er of the death penal­ty but even­tu­al­ly con­clud­ed that abo­li­tion was ​“just plain com­mon sense.” Chief Abbott…

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Nov 21, 2007

NEW VOICES: Veteran Police Officer Concludes ​‘death penal­ty is inef­fi­cient and extravagantly expensive’

Norm Stamper, a 35-year vet­er­an police offi­cer from San Diego, recent­ly wrote in The Mercury News that from his expe­ri­ence, ​“the death penal­ty is inef­fi­cient and extrav­a­gant­ly expen­sive.” Instead of spend­ing mil­lions of dol­lars on the death penal­ty, Stamper writes, ​“Spending scarce pub­lic resources on after-school pro­grams, men­tal health care, drug and alco­hol treat­ment, edu­ca­tion, more crime labs and new tech­nolo­gies, or on hir­ing more police offi­cers, would tru­ly help create safer…

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Executions Overview

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Nov 20, 2007

NEW VOICES: Former Texas Warden Reconsiders the Death Penalty

Jim Willet, for­mer war­den of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Walls Unit where Texas exe­cu­tions take place, recent­ly described his expe­ri­ences to the Dallas Observer as emo­tion­al­ly dif­fi­cult for him. As war­den dur­ing 1998 – 2001, three of the busiest years for Texas’ death cham­ber, Willet over­saw 89 exe­cu­tions. ​“The first time is unbe­liev­able,” he told the Observer. ​“You have this healthy per­son – this per­son who was able to just jump up on the gur­ney – and you’ve said, ​‘Kill this…

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New Voices

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Jul 02, 2007

NEW VOICES: Former Florida Prison Warden Calls for End to Death Penalty

Eleven years after super­vis­ing his first exe­cu­tion as at the Florida State Prison at Starke, for­mer war­den Ron McAndrew is urg­ing an end to the death penal­ty. McAndrew is call­ing on states to aban­don cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and replace it with life with­out parole, a pun­ish­ment he notes is worse than the death penal­ty and pro­tects states from exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son. He observes, “(T)he most severe pun­ish­ment you could ever give any­one would be to lock them in a lit­tle cage made out of…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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New Voices

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May 31, 2007

NEW VOICES: Former FBI Chief Expresses Concerns about Innocence and the Death Penalty

In a guest col­umn pub­lished in the Jurist, for­mer FBI Director William S. Sessions under­scored the impor­tance of mak­ing DNA test­ing avail­able for those fac­ing exe­cu­tion. He also encour­aged states to thor­ough­ly review their cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tems and to make reforms to ensure greater reli­a­bil­i­ty. DNA test­ing, he not­ed, has revealed that police often do not have the right sus­pect in seri­ous crimes. In about 25% of the cas­es where DNA was avail­able and a suspect had…

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Deterrence

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New Voices

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Mar 28, 2007

NEW VOICES: Law Enforcement Officer Says Death Penalty is Too Expensive and Does Not Deter Crime

Jim Davidsaver, a 20-year vet­er­an with the Lincoln Police Department in Nebraska, recent­ly wrote a col­umn out­lin­ing his sup­port for leg­is­la­tion that would have repealed the state’s death penal­ty. Davidsaver said he sup­port­ed the mea­sure, which failed to pass into law, because the death penal­ty does not deter crime and is too expen­sive. He not­ed that in his years of ser­vice with the police force he wit­nessed many hor­rif­ic crime scenes, but none of the accused…

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Mar 15, 2007

NEW VOICES: Law Enforcement Officials Gather in Maryland to Oppose Death Penalty

Corrections offi­cials, pros­e­cu­tors and police chiefs recent­ly gath­ered in Annapolis, Maryland, to voice sup­port for a leg­isla­tive mea­sure that would repeal the state’s death penal­ty. ​“It is a human sys­tem, and because it is fal­li­ble and because it is human, it makes mis­takes. Executions make those mis­takes irre­versible,” said Matthew Campbell, a for­mer deputy state’s attor­ney for Montgomery and Howard coun­ties. Gary J. Hilton, a for­mer war­den at the Trenton State Prison in New Jersey, added…

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Jan 16, 2007

NEW VOICES: Former Ohio Corrections Director Calls for Ending Death Penalty

Reggie Wilkinson, who wit­nessed 19 exe­cu­tions dur­ing his 33 years with the Ohio Department of Corrections, recent­ly stat­ed that he would like to see exe­cu­tions end­ed in the state. Wilkinson, who served for 15 years as Director of the Department of Corrections and advo­cat­ed for aban­don­ing the state’s elec­tric chair and replac­ing it with lethal injec­tion, not­ed, ​“I would not oppose the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty. The United States is the only indus­tri­al­ized nation in the world with…

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Nov 27, 2006

NEW VOICES: Former Death Row Warden Changes His Views

Dennis O’Neill had been an assis­tant war­den at Florida State Prison for two years and war­den at Union Correctional Institution for 7 years, both death row pris­ons. He even­tu­al­ly left the cor­rec­tion­al sys­tem and became an Episcopal priest. He was assigned back to the town of Starke, Florida, where death row inmates reside. As a cor­rec­tion­al offi­cer, he had been involved in more than a dozen exe­cu­tions over 14 years, but now O’Neill oppos­es the death penal­ty. ​“For years, I told myself it was…

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Sentencing Alternatives

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Nov 09, 2006

NEW VOICES: Former Death Row Warden Calls for Clemency on Eve of Execution

The for­mer war­den of the Virginia prison that hous­es the state’s death row inmates has called for clemen­cy for a man about to be exe­cut­ed on November 9. Page True was war­den of the Sussex I State Prison and knew death row inmate John Schmitt for over 4 years. ​“The crime was just ter­ri­ble,” True said, ​“but there’s a lot worse inmates that I’ve dealt with in my 36 years in prison sys­tems than Mr.

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New Voices

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Oct 12, 2006

NEW VOICES: New Jersey Law Enforcement Official Discusses Problems with the Death Penalty

Edward Johnson is a for­mer FBI Agent who cur­rent­ly over­sees inves­tiga­tive work for the Union County (NJ) Prosecutor’s Office. He recent­ly expressed his per­son­al opin­ions about the state’s death penal­ty. He con­clud­ed that in New Jersey pub­lic opin­ion may now have moved to the point where the death penal­ty will be abol­ished. He not­ed, in…

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Recent Legislative Activity

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New Voices

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Sep 27, 2006

NEW VOICES: Former FBI Director Warns Against Stripping Death Penalty Appeals

The for­mer Director of the FBI, William Sessions (pic­tured), along with Timothy Lewis, a for­mer judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals, called on mem­bers of Congress to refrain from bar­ring death row inmates and oth­er defen­dants from the full access to the fed­er­al courts in their appeals. Some leg­is­la­tors have pro­posed elim­i­nat­ing fed­er­al habeas cor­pus review in many cas­es, and bar­ring access to the fed­er­al courts to many of those rais­ing chal­lenges to their…

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Recent Legislative Activity

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New Voices

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Jan 13, 2006

NEW VOICES: California Moratorium Bill Gains Broad Support From Law Enforcement, Prosecutors and Judges

A group of 40 law enforce­ment offi­cers, cur­rent and for­mer pros­e­cu­tors, and judges at the state and fed­er­al lev­el have urged California law­mak­ers to enact a tem­po­rary halt to exe­cu­tions in the state while a com­mis­sion exam­ines the accu­ra­cy and fair­ness of the death penal­ty. In a let­ter to mem­bers of the California Assembly, the bi-par­ti­san group of death penal­ty sup­port­ers and oppo­nents wrote, “[G]iven that DNA test­ing and oth­er new evi­dence has proven that more than 121 peo­ple who sat on…

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Clemency

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New Voices

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Jan 03, 2006

NEW VOICES: Former Warden and Supreme Court Justice Seek Clemency for California Man

Former California Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grodin and for­mer San Quentin war­den Daniel Vasquez are urg­ing California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant clemen­cy to Clarence Ray Allen. Allen, who will turn 76 just a day before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion on January 17, is blind and dis­abled, con­di­tions that his attor­neys have argued would make his exe­cu­tion cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. In a let­ter to Schwarzenegger, Grodin, who authored the court’s 1986 opin­ion upholding Allen’s…

Nov 29, 2004

NEW VOICES: Former FBI Chief and Texas Judge Call for Halt to Texas Executions

William S. Sessions, who served as direc­tor of the FBI from 1987 to 1993, and Charles F. Baird, a for­mer Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge from 1990 to 1998, have called for a halt to exe­cu­tions in Texas because of the risk of exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son. Sessions and Baird, both of whom are native Texans, cit­ed the prob­lems at the Houston Crime Lab as a prin­ci­pal rea­son for their doubts about the reli­a­bil­i­ty of the death penal­ty sys­tem: Since November 2002, when its…

Oct 01, 2004

Texas Police Chief Calls for Halt to Executions in Wake of Scandal

In the wake of a scan­dal that has called into ques­tion the reli­a­bil­i­ty of the police crime lab’s test­ing and han­dling of evi­dence in Harris County, Texas, Police Chief Harold Hurtt has said that exe­cu­tions of inmates from the coun­ty should not be sched­uled until all rel­e­vant evi­dence has been reex­am­ined to assure accu­ra­cy. He went on to note that the exe­cu­tions of nine indi­vid­u­als con­vict­ed in Harris County that are sched­uled to take place before March 2005 should not be…

Apr 14, 2004

NEW VOICES: Law Enforcement Officials Support Bill to End Juvenile Death Penalty

A bipar­ti­san mea­sure to elim­i­nate the juve­nile death penal­ty in Florida has passed the Senate Criminal Justice Committee and is now on its way to the full Senate for con­sid­er­a­tion. The mea­sure was intro­duced by Republican Senator Victor Crist, a death penal­ty sup­port­er who notes that young peo­ple are dif­fer­ent because they don’t have the same under­stand­ing of con­se­quences as an adult. .The bill also has sup­port from the state’s top law enforce­ment offi­cers, Florida Attorney General…

Mar 04, 2004

NEW VOICES: Police Chief Says Death Penalty Is Unwise Use of Limited Resources

West Hartford Police Chief James Strillacci, pres­i­dent of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, has told state law­mak­ers that resources devot­ed to the death penal­ty would be bet­ter spent else­where. He not­ed, ​“It is a prac­ti­cal issue. We have a death penal­ty law on the books, but we haven’t exe­cut­ed any­one since 1960, and it does­n’t look like any­one will be exe­cut­ed. The process is long, labor inten­sive and expen­sive. Now, any mon­ey we’ve put into death penal­ty cas­es has really…

Jul 18, 2003

Law Enforcement Views: Houston Police Chief Voices Concern About Prosecutors

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…

Jun 26, 2003

NEW VOICES: Former FBI Chief Sessions Calls for Innocence Commission in Texas

NEW VOICES: Former FBI Chief Sessions Calls for Innocence Commission in Texas In a recent op-ed, William Sessions called on state leg­is­la­tors in Texas to pass a mea­sure to cre­ate an Innocence Commission. The Commission would exam­ine the Texas crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem in an effort to pro­tect against wrong­ful con­vic­tions. Sessions, a for­mer direc­tor of the FBI and fed­er­al judge, not­ed that numer­ous exon­er­a­tions , recent crime lab scan­dals (see below) in the state, and oth­er troubling events…