What's New

NEW RESOURCE: Law Review Features American Bar Association's Defense Counsel Guidelines

Posted: October 28, 2003
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A special edition of the Hofstra Law Review features an in-depth look at the American Bar Association's Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases. The law review examines the ABA's revised defense counsel guidelines that were approved on February 10, 2003, and it contains articles based on an October 2003 conference at Hofstra University during which all death penalty jurisdictions were urged to implement the revised guidelines.

President Carter Calls on U.S. to Protect Children's Rights

Posted: October 28, 2003
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In a speech urging U.S. leaders to ratify the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which forbids the execution of juvenile offenders, President Jimmy Carter noted that the United States and Somalia are the only two countries in the U.N.

President Carter Calls on U.S. to Protect Children's Rights

Posted: October 28, 2003
in
In a speech urging U.S. leaders to ratify the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which forbids the execution of juvenile offenders, President Jimmy Carter noted that the United States and Somalia are the only two countries in the U.N.

President Carter Calls on U.S. to Protect Children's Rights

Posted: October 28, 2003
in
In a speech urging U.S. leaders to ratify the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which forbids the execution of juvenile offenders, President Jimmy Carter noted that the United States and Somalia are the only two countries in the U.N.

Victim's Son Awarded Scholarship from Prisoners on Death Row

Posted: October 23, 2003
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Two years after Brandon Biggs first expressed forgiveness for Chante Mallard, the woman who killed his father in a nationally-publicized Texas murder, he has received a $10,000 college scholarship from prisoners on death row. The scholarship is funded through advertising and subscriptions to "Compassion," a two-year-old newsletter edited by and featuring articles by death row inmates across the nation. Biggs, whose father was struck by a car on a Fort Worth highway and left to bleed to death, is the third murder victims' family member to earn the award.

NEW RESOURCE: An Expendable Man

Posted: October 22, 2003
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A new book by Margaret Edds, an award-winning editorial writer with the Virginian-Pilot, explores the wrongful conviction of former Virginia death row inmate Earl Washington. "An Expendable Man: The Near-Execution of Earl Washington, Jr." provides detailed analysis of the state's prosecution of Washington, a mentally retarded man who spent almost 18 years in prison - nearly 10 of those on death row - for a murder he did not commit.

Judge Throws Out Last Piece of Evidence Against Tennessee Man

Posted: October 22, 2003
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Michael Lee McCormick has been on Tennessee's death row for 17 years, but a recent court decision throwing out the remaining evidence against him could result in his freedom. Judge Doug Meyer ruled that tapes containing conversations between McCormick and an undercover police officer who had befriended him were inadmissible due to "police misconduct." Meyer noted that McCormick, who is an alcoholic, had continually denied his involvement in the crime "until the authorities made him dependent upon them for his alcohol.

DUE PROCESS: Mentally Ill Man Convicted, Sentenced to Death In Three Hours

Posted: October 22, 2003
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A Tennessee jury took only 2 hours to convict and another hour to sentence Richard Taylor to death. Taylor suffers from mental illness and defended himself. The trial took place 19 years after Taylor's original 1984 death sentence, which was set aside because he had inadequate representation and his complex mental-health history had not been fully investigated.