Entries tagged with “Academics”
Policy Issues
Arbitrariness
,Race
,New Voices
,Oct 24, 2018
Following Washington Death Penalty Abolition, Op-eds Encourage Other States to Follow Suit
Following the Washington Supreme Court’s October 11, 2018 decision declaring the state’s death penalty unconstitutional, news outlets have questioned what comes next. Op-ed writers in North Carolina, Texas, and California have responded, urging their states to reconsider their capital punishment laws. The Washington court cited racial bias, “arbitrary decision-making, random imposition of the death penalty, unreliability, geographic rarity, and excessive delays” as reasons why it struck down the death penalty. In a guest column in the Sacramento Bee, University of California Berkeley School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky wrote, “California’s…
Policy Issues
Sentencing Alternatives
,New Voices
,Apr 25, 2008
NEW VOICES: Author of Arizona’s Death Penalty Law Says Time is Ripe for a Re-Examination
Rudolph J. Gerber served as a prosecutor and as a judge on Arizona’s Court of Appeals for 13 years. Earlier in his career, then-state senator Sandra Day O’Connor asked Mr. Gerber to draft the statute that eventually became Arizona’s death penalty law. In a recent op-ed in the Sacramento Bee, he expressed his concerns about the practice of capital punishment and said that states should use the present period in which no executions are occurring as an opportunity to re-examine their commitment to the death penalty. Excerpts from his…
Jun 26, 2003
NEW VOICES: Opposing Viewpoints Find Common Ground
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:
May 12, 2004
NEW VOICES: Scientific Experts Say DNA Evidence Not “Infallible”
Scientists who are skeptical of Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s claim that DNA is “infallible” evidence in a death penalty case have voiced concern about the assumption, noting that there is no way to avoid all possible instances of human error and that the evidence does not always prove a person’s guilt or innocence. Theodore D. Kessis is the founder of Applied DNA Resources, based in Columbus, Ohio, and a faculty member at the John Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore. He provides expert testimony and analysis to the legal…
Policy Issues
Costs
,New Voices
,Aug 03, 2017
Political Analysis: Is Conservative Support the Future of Death-Penalty Abolition?
In a forthcoming article in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, released online in July, Ben Jones argues that, despite the popular conception of death-penalty abolition as a politically progressive cause, its future success may well depend upon building support among Republicans and political conservatives. In The Republican Party, Conservatives, and the Future of Capital Punishment, Jones — the Assistant Director of Rock Ethics Institute at Pennsylvania State University — traces the ideological roots of the recent emergence of Republican lawmakers as champions of death penalty repeal to long-held conservative views. He writes,…
Policy Issues
Innocence
,Race
,New Voices
,Apr 25, 2018
Powerful New Documentaries Explore Death-Penalty Issues
Three powerful new documentaries that explore the modern death penalty in the United States are set to premiere this April.
Facts & Research
New Voices
,Nov 21, 2007
RESOURCES: Leading Criminologist Recommends Halt to Executions as Public Policy Priority
The journal of Criminology & Public Policy recently asked leading experts to recommend important policy changes needed in the area of criminal justice and to provide the evidence to support such change. Although most of the articles addressed various prison and treatment issues, the first article by Prof. James Acker of the University at Albany called for an immediate moratorium on executions. Prof. Acker examines the United States’ long history of grappling with the death penalty. He concludes that “sufficient evidence now exists regarding the effectiveness of the death penalty…
Facts & Research
United States Supreme Court
,New Voices
,Executions Overview
,Nov 14, 2007
Supreme Court Review of Lethal Injections Attracts Advocates from Many Disciplines
In addition to the main brief submitted by the Petitioner in Baze v. Rees, several amicus curiae briefs have been filed in support of the inmates from Kentucky who are challenging the constitutionality of lethal injections as practiced in their state before the U.S. Supreme Court. The case is likely to be heard in January 2008 and decided by June. It appears that executions around the country have been put on hold pending the Court’s decision. The amicus (“friend of the court”) briefs submitted include: