A recent CNN perspective examined the views of those they called "the most unlikely opponents of the death penalty, people who lost loved ones to unspeakable violence yet believe executing the killer will do nothing for family members or society." For example, Ross Byrd, the son of James Byrd, Jr., who was dragged to his death behind a truck in Texas by Lawrence Brewer, nevertheless objected to Brewer's execution, saying "You can't fight murder with murder." In Mississippi, the mother and siblings of James Anderson asked for his killer's life to be spared. In a letter to the district attorney, Barbara Anderson Young, Anderson's sister, cited the family's faith as one of the reasons why they opposed capital punishment. And Charisse Coleman, whose brother Russell (both pictured) was shot in a liquor store in Shreveport, Louisiana, pointed to the fallibility of the system: "The criminal justice [system]," she said, "is created by and conducted by humans. As long as we're capable of making mistakes, we shouldn't be deciding who lives and dies." Her views did not stem from sympathy for the defendant: "My opposition to the death penalty has nothing to do with Bobby Lee Hampton," she said. "He's a bad dude. He's never going to be a good dude. If I got a call that said Bobby Lee Hampton dropped dead in his cell last night, I don't think it would create a ripple in my pond. . . [but] I will [not] let Bobby Lee Hampton make me a victim, too, by taking me down that road of bitterness and revenge."
UPDATE: Execution stayed by Mississippi Supreme Court. Since 1994, Willie Manning, an inmate on Mississippi's death row, has been requesting DNA testing of critical evidence recovered from the crime scene of the murders that led to his conviction. Manning's conviction was based mainly on circumstantial evidence. In April the Mississippi Supreme Court narrowly (5-4) denied the DNA testing being requested. Earlier, the same Court had overturned Manning’s conviction because his lawyers were not allowed to fully cross-examine the informant in the case, but the Court reconsidered its decision and let the conviction stand. Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld of the New York-based Innocence Project strongly supported the testing in an op-ed in the Clarion Ledger: "While people can differ on whether the death penalty is an appropriate form of punishment, nearly everyone would agree that it should be used only in those cases where we are certain of guilt. DNA testing could provide that certainty or prove, as Manning insists, that he is innocent." Manning's lawyers have asked Governor Phil Bryant to issue a stay and order the testing. He is scheduled to be executed on May 7.
Jeffrey Havard (pictured) is facing execution in Mississippi despite the fact that key evidence against him came from a medical examiner who has been harshly criticized by experts in his field. Havard was convicted of murdering his girlfriend’s 6-month-old daughter, based primarily on the testimony of Steven Hayne, a state pathologist. Dr. Hayne testified he found symptoms of "shaken baby syndrome" and sexual abuse on the infant. Recent investigations into Hayne's credentials indicate he had never been certified in forensic pathology by the American Board of Pathology. He took the exam in 1980, but failed it. Dr. Hayne acknowledged performing as many as 1,700 autopsies in a year, far more than the number recommended by experts, in addition to having his own pathology practice. According to Dr. David Fowler, chief medical examiner in Maryland and a former chairman of the standards committee for the National Association of Medical Examiners, that number is "beyond defensible." Hayne's autopsy in Havard's case has been reviewed and discredited by other expert pathologists. Mississippi stopped working with Dr. Hayne in 2008. Other cases in which he had provided pivotal prosecution testimony have been overturned through DNA testing. However, Havard's appeal has been denied by the state Supreme Court.
Conditions for the the 50 inmates on Mississippi’s death row are perhaps typical of death rows around the country, but are nevertheless debilitating and cruel. Most inmates spend an average of 12-15 years on death row while they proceed through the appeals process, though some have been there longer than 30 years. Death row inmates usually spend 23 hours a day in their cells. Dr. Stuart Grassian, a Harvard psychiatrist who has long studied death row inmates in solitary confinement, described death row conditions as “toxic.” He added, “It's an agonizing thing to go through. They know when somebody is leaving to go to the death cell they aren't coming back. The very conditions they live in (over the years) is often too much." Inmates suffer auditory hallucinations, panic attacks, and other psychiatric symptoms. Thomas Loden, a death row inmate, said that most people forget they are still human. He wrote, “Yes, we all have justly been sentenced, but would it surprise anyone that we still feel, that we still are human? As far as being aware of who is next, we all are, but this is something that's not really openly discussed. We do try to show respect to one another. But overall … the hardest part of the row isn't the end, it's the dying a little each day … knowing you're but one day closer to death.” Despite the sparse conditions, housing an inmate on death row is more than twice as expensive as keeping them in the general prison. Taxpayers spend $102.27 per day to house a death row inmate, as opposed to $41.61 per day for other inmates. In one case, the state has spent more than $1 million to house an inmate who has been on death row since 1977.
In the first half of 2012, eight states carried out 23 executions. In the same period last year, there were 25 executions in 9 states. The annual number of executions has declined significantly from its peak in 1999, when 98 people were executed. There were 43 executions in 2011. Sixteen of this year's executions (70%) have been in the South, with nearly half in just two states - Texas and Mississippi. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of cases resulting in executions this year involved a murder with a white victim, even though generally whites are victims of murder less than 50% of the time in the U.S. Inmates executed so far this year spent an average of just over 18 years on death row prior to execution. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the average time between sentencing and execution for those executed in 2010 was 15 years, the longest period for any single year. States have continued to alter their execution protocols due to ongoing shortages of certain execution drugs. All executions in 2012 have been by lethal injection. This year Arizona and Idaho joined Ohio and Washington in using a one-drug lethal injection procedure. All executions this year have used pentobarbital, a drug not used in executions prior to December 2010.
Edwin Turner (pictured), a death row inmate in Mississippi, is scheduled for execution on February 8. His attorney, Jim Craig, has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court and Governor Phil Bryant for a reprieve, based in part on Turner's mental illness. Craig said, “The Supreme Court has not decided the question of whether a prisoner with a severe mental disorder or disability which significantly impairs that person’s ability to rationally process information, to make reasonable judgments and to control their impulses, whether people in that category can be executed. So we’re asking the Supreme Court to establish that it would be contrary to consensus of moral values, that it would be cruel and unusual punishment, to execute someone with severe mental illness.” Turner is facing execution for the 1995 shooting of a clerk and a customer at a gas station. His accomplice received a sentence of life without parole after pleading guilty to murder. Turner has a long family history of mental illness: his great-grandmother and grandmother were committed to state hospitals. Turner’s mother attempted suicide twice, and his father was killed in an explosion that some believe was a suicide. Turner has also attempted suicide several times, including one instance that left his face permanently disfigured. UPDATE: Altlhough a federal District Court granted a stay on Feb. 6, the Court of Appeals lifted the stay on Feb. 8, and the state is planning to carry out the execution as scheduled.
DPIC is pleased to announce the completion of our 
Family members of James Anderson (pictured), who was killed on June 26 in Jackson, Mississippi, are asking the District Attorney not to seek the death penalty for Anderson's killer. Deryl Dedmon, a white teenager, was charged with Anderson's murder after he and other white teens took turns beating him. Dedmon then drove over Anderson with a truck. Barbara Anderson Young, the victim's sister, wrote a letter to the D.A. on behalf of their mother and two brothers, saying that their opposition to the death penalty is "deeply rooted in our religious faith, a faith that was central in James' life as well." The letter continued, "We also oppose the death penalty because it historically has been used in Mississippi and the South primarily against people of color for killing whites. Executing James' killers will not help balance the scales. But sparing them may help to spark a dialogue that one day will lead to the elimination of capital punishment." On September 21, Texas executed Lawrence Brewer, a white supremacist who dragged an African-American man to death in Jasper 13 years ago. Some members of the victim's family also opposed the death penalty.