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Entries tagged with “Judges”

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Innocence

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Oct 19, 2018

As Capital Retrial Begins, Former Judge Says Defendant Should Not Be Convicted

As Seminole County pros­e­cu­tors seek the death penal­ty against Clemente Javier Aguirre-Jarquin a sec­ond time despite sub­stan­tial evi­dence impli­cat­ing anoth­er sus­pect, the Florida judge who ini­tial­ly sen­tenced Aguirre-Jarquin to death now says he should not be con­vict­ed. Retired Judge O.H. Eaton (pic­tured), who presided over Aguirre-Jarquin’s dou­ble-mur­der tri­al in 2006, said he now believes that the case is a ​“poster child” for the flaws in the death penal­ty sys­tem. ​“The evi­dence I heard dur­ing the tri­al [in 2006] sub­stan­ti­at­ed the ver­dict,” Eaton told the Orlando Sentinel. ​“The evi­dence I’ve heard…

Policy Issues

Costs

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Representation

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New Voices

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Nov 10, 2008

COSTS: Utah Supreme Court Says Death Sentences Will Be Reversed Unless Legislature Provides for Adequate Counsel

Utah’s Supreme Court recent­ly expressed con­cern that the lack of qual­i­fied defense attor­neys for indi­gent death row inmates could unrav­el cap­i­tal sen­tences. In a unan­i­mous deci­sion in the case of death row inmate Michael Archuleta, Associate Chief Justice Michael Wilkins (pic­tured) said the court might be forced to reverse cap­i­tal sen­tences because the low pay and the com­plex­i­ty of such cas­es have shrunk the pool of Utah attor­neys who will accept them. ​“It falls to us, as the court of last resort in this state, to assure that no person…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Mar 21, 2024

Discussions with DPIC Podcast: Retired Judge Elsa Alcala on the Death Penalty in Texas

In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Judge Elsa Alcala, who served on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals from 2011 to 2018. In addi­tion to serv­ing as a judge at the appeals and tri­al lev­el, she worked as a pros­e­cu­tor, crim­i­nal defense attor­ney, and most recent­ly as a jus­tice-reform lob­by­ist dur­ing her three-decade career in crim­i­nal law. She shares how these expe­ri­ences have informed her per­spec­tive on the death penal­ty and iden­ti­fies rec­om­men­da­tions for crim­i­nal legal reforms. 

Facts & Research

Recent Legislative Activity

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Sentencing Data

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United States Supreme Court

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New Voices

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Jan 28, 2016

Florida Holds Hearing On Capital Sentencing As Experts Urge Reform

In an op-ed for the Orlando Sentinel, for­mer Florida Supreme Court Justice Raoul Cantero (pic­tured) and ABA Death Penalty Assessment Team mem­ber Mark Schlakman call on the Florida leg­is­la­ture to repair the con­sti­tu­tion­al vio­la­tions in Florida’s cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing scheme. The U.S. Supreme Court found in Hurst v. Florida that the state’s sen­tenc­ing process vio­lates the Sixth Amendment because a jury does not unan­i­mous­ly find the aggra­vat­ing fac­tors that jus­ti­fy a death sen­tence. Cantero and Schlakman urge the leg­is­la­ture to enact leg­is­la­tion to ​“require una­nim­i­ty for find­ings of aggra­va­tors and recommendations…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Executions Overview

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Nov 02, 2020

Florida Supreme Court Abandons 50-Year-Old Proportionality Safeguard for Capital Defendants

In a con­tin­u­ing diminu­tion of pro­ce­dur­al safe­guards in cap­i­tal cas­es, the Florida Supreme Court has end­ed its long-stand­ing prac­tice of inde­pen­dent­ly review­ing death penal­ty cas­es on appeal to ensure that they are not dis­pro­por­tion­ate to sen­tences imposed in sim­i­lar cases.

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Lethal Injection

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Feb 13, 2017

Former Federal Appeals Judge Urges Caution as Ohio Reschedules Executions

In a guest col­umn for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, retired fed­er­al appeals court judge Nathaniel R. Jones (pic­tured) urged Ohio to ​“recon­sid­er its race to death” in sched­ul­ing exe­cu­tions while the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s lethal injec­tion process remains in ques­tion. Jones, who served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from 1979 to 2002, crit­i­cized the state’s pro­posed use of the drug mida­zo­lam in exe­cu­tions, describ­ing Ohio’s 2014 exe­cu­tion of Dennis McGuire using the drug, in which wit­ness­es said McGuire ​“gasped loud­ly for air and…

Policy Issues

Victims' Families

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New Voices

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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 fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors and law enforce­ment offi­cials, and 26 for­mer cor­rec­tion­al pro­fes­sion­als offered diverse perspectives…

Facts & Research

United States Supreme Court

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New Voices

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Feb 17, 2016

Former State Chief Justices: Pennsylvania Justice Should Not Have Approved Death as D.A., Then Reviewed Case on Appeal

In a recent Washington Times op-ed, two for­mer state supreme court chief jus­tices argue that a state supreme court jus­tice who, as dis­trict attor­ney, had autho­rized the cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion of a defen­dant, should not have lat­er par­tic­i­pat­ed as a judge in decid­ing an appeal in that case. Gerald Kogan (pic­tured, l.), for­mer chief jus­tice of the Florida Supreme Court, and Michael Wolff (pic­tured, r.), for­mer chief jus­tice of the Supreme Court of Missouri, joined a num­ber of oth­er for­mer judges who had been pros­e­cu­tors and for­mer appel­late court jurists in…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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International

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Representation

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Upcoming Executions

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Conditions on Death Row

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Mar 02, 2022

Melissa Lucio Files Motions to Vacate Death Warrant, Remove Judge and District Attorney Based on Conflicts of Interest

Lawyers for Texas death-row pris­on­er Melissa Lucio (pic­tured) have moved to vacate her April 27, 2022 exe­cu­tion date and remove the judge and dis­trict attor­ney in her case because of con­flicts of inter­est stem­ming from their employ­ment of key mem­bers of Lucio’s orig­i­nal defense team.

Jun 26, 2003

NEW VOICES: Akron Beacon Journal Calls for Death Penalty Review in Ohio

A recent edi­to­r­i­al in The Beacon Journal notes that Ohio Supreme Court Justice Paul Pfeifer, who played a lead­ing role in writ­ing Ohio’s death penal­ty statute 22 years ago when he was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is now call­ing for pas­sage of leg­is­la­tion to ana­lyze the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem. The review, which also has the endorse­ment of the Ohio State Bar Association, would cre­ate a Capital Case Commission to study the state’s death penal­ty and make reform rec­om­men­da­tions to ensure accu­ra­cy and fair­ness. The edi­to­r­i­al concludes:

Policy Issues

Costs

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New Voices

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May 03, 2006

NEW VOICES: California Chief Justice Calls Death Penalty ​“Dysfunctional”

Ronald George (pic­tured), Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, recent­ly called the state’s death penal­ty ​“dys­func­tion­al” and crit­i­cized state law­mak­ers for their unwill­ing­ness to ade­quate­ly fund the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. The Justice not­ed that this refusal has been ​“a dis­ser­vice to the admin­is­tra­tion of jus­tice.” George added, ​“I think that there are many, many things in the eyes of leg­is­la­tors that have greater pri­or­i­ty. That’s the prob­lem. People want to have the death penal­ty, but they don’t want to pay every­thing it costs to have it imple­ment­ed in…

Policy Issues

Costs

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New Voices

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Mar 03, 2008

NEW VOICES: California Judge Says Death Penalty is ​“Waste of Taxpayers’ Money”

During his 15-year tenure on the court, Orange County Superior Court Judge Donald McCartin sen­tenced nine men to death. Now retired, Judge McCartin no longer believes in the death penal­ty. ​“It’s a waste of time and tax­pay­ers’ mon­ey,” Judge McCartin said. ​“It cost 10 times more to kill these guys than to keep them alive in prison. It’s absurd. And imag­ine the poor vic­tims’ fam­i­lies hav­ing to go through this again and again.” All but one of the nine men Judge McCartin sen­tenced to death still remain on California’s death…

Facts & Research

Clemency

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New Voices

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Jan 31, 2006

NEW VOICES: California Judge Seeks Clemency for Man He Sentenced to Death

More than two decades after Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath con­demned Michael Morales to die, McGrath is ask­ing California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant clemen­cy because the con­vic­tion was like­ly based on false tes­ti­mo­ny from a jail­house infor­mant. Morales is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on February 21. McGrath’s let­ter was includ­ed in a clemen­cy peti­tion filed by Morales’ attor­neys, David Senior and Kenneth W. Starr, dean of Pepperdine Law School and a for­mer fed­er­al judge.

Facts & Research

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 death rows around the coun­try were actu­al­ly innocent…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Oct 17, 2006

NEW VOICES: Chief Judge of the Fourth Circuit Ponders Worth of the Death Penalty

In a recent speech to law stu­dents from Furman University, William W. Wilkins, the Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, expressed doubts about the val­ue of the death penal­ty giv­en its high costs and prob­a­ble lack of deter­rence. He also not­ed that the exis­tence of the death penal­ty in the U.S. makes it very dif­fi­cult to extra­dite sus­pects from for­eign coun­tries who oppose cap­i­tal punishment.With respect to the extra costs attibutable to cap­i­tal cas­es, Wilkins not­ed, ​“I’m not say­ing it costs too much. But…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Innocence

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New Voices

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Oct 23, 2006

NEW VOICES: Federal Appeals Court Judge of the Fifth Circuit Expresses Legal and Moral Problems with the Death Penalty

Judge Carolyn Dineen King of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit was the main speak­er at the ​“Red Mass” on October 4 at the Catholic cathe­dral in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Red Mass is an annu­al litur­gy held for mem­bers of the legal pro­fes­sion near the begin­ning of the judi­cial term. Its tra­di­tions extend back to 13th cen­tu­ry Europe. Judge King spoke about the death penal­ty, both from her per­spec­tive as a judge and as a Catholic. In both areas, she raised strong con­cerns about the application…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Federal Death Penalty

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May 08, 2007

NEW VOICES: Federal Judge Advises Justice Department to Rethink Death Case

U.S. District Judge S. James Otero recent­ly halt­ed the penal­ty phase of a fed­er­al cap­i­tal case in Los Angeles and told pros­e­cu­tors that he believes the U.S. Justice Department should recon­sid­er its deci­sion to seek the death penal­ty for Petro ​“Peter” Krylov. Krylov is fac­ing the death penal­ty for his role in a kid­nap­ping and mur­der plot. Otero, the sec­ond fed­er­al judge this year to urge fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors and the Justice Department to rethink their deci­sion to seek a death sen­tence, told pros­e­cu­tors that Krylov’s case is dif­fer­ent from the…

Policy Issues

Costs

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Representation

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New Voices

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Aug 30, 2007

NEW VOICES: Federal Judge Calls for Vast Improvements in Representation to Fix California’s Broken System

Arthur L. Alarcon, a senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in Los Angeles, sharply crit­i­cized California’s death penal­ty sys­tem and chid­ed law­mak­ers for fail­ing to pro­vide ade­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion and fund­ing for cap­i­tal cas­es. Judge Alarcon, a death penal­ty sup­port­er, wrote an arti­cle in the Southern California Law Review enti­tled ​“Remedies for California’s Death Row Deadlock” warn­ing that fail­ure to address California’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment prob­lems and its back­log of cas­es could effec­tive­ly end the death penal­ty in the state. He not­ed, ​“The delays in…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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New Voices

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Jul 27, 2007

NEW VOICES: Federal Judge Calls the Death Penalty Arbitrary, Biased and Fundamentally Flawed

Judge Boyce F. Martin, Jr. (pic­tured) of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit called the death penal­ty ​“arbi­trary, biased, and so fun­da­men­tal­ly flawed at its very core that it is beyond repair.” Judge Martin dis­sent­ed in the case of Getsy v. Mitchell and said it made no sense that Jason Getsy received a death sen­tence for his role in a mur­der-for-hire con­spir­a­cy, while the oth­er two trig­ger­men and the mas­ter­mind of the crime, all escaped a death sen­tence. He wrote: In Jason Getsy’s case, sad­ly, we need…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Victims' Families

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New Voices

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Jan 03, 2005

NEW VOICES: Federal Judge Discusses His Concerns About the Death Penalty

In an inter­view with The New York Times, Judge Jed S. Rakoff (pic­tured) dis­cussed his rea­sons for find­ing the fed­er­al death penal­ty to be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Judge Rakoff ruled in April 2002 that the death penal­ty failed to secure due process because of the demon­strat­ed risk of exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son. He not­ed that his con­clu­sions on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment were based in part on his exten­sive review of cas­es includ­ed on the Death Penalty Information Center’s inno­cence list. He remarked that the exon­er­a­tions exposed ​“some­thing pret­ty upset­ting, if you think about…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Federal Death Penalty

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Jan 30, 2007

NEW VOICES: Federal Judge Says New York Case is ​“Absurd” Waste of Time and Money

U.S. District Judge Frederick Block recent­ly told fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors that pur­su­ing a death sen­tence for Kenneth McGriff would be an ​“absurd” waste of time and mon­ey. According to a court tran­script, while jurors were on a break dur­ing clos­ing argu­ments of the guilt phase of McGriff’s tri­al, Block advised pros­e­cu­tors to con­tact their super­vi­sors in Washington, DC, and ask them to recon­sid­er their deci­sion to seek the death penal­ty if McGriff is con­vict­ed in a con­tract killing con­spir­a­cy. He told pros­e­cu­tors, ​“I feel, as an offi­cer, as a judge, that…

Policy Issues

Costs

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New Voices

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Federal Death Penalty

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Mar 03, 2008

NEW VOICES: Federal Judge Says Seeking Death Sentence not Worth the Costs

Federal District Court Judge Jack B. Weinstein said recent­ly that seek­ing the death penal­ty against Humberto Pepin Taveras in New York is not worth the effort of pros­e­cu­tors or tax­pay­ers’ mon­ey. ​“Based on the his­to­ry of cas­es tried in met­ro­pol­i­tan New York, the chance of Pepin receiv­ing the death penal­ty is vir­tu­al­ly nil,” Weinstein said. The case against Taveras, who con­fessed to mur­der­ing two drug traf­fick­ers in the 1990s while already serv­ing more than 12 years in prison for oth­er crimes, has already cost over $750,000 in defense costs, and…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Innocence

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Intellectual Disability

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Mental Illness

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New Voices

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May 24, 2016

NEW VOICES: Former Chief Justice of North Carolina Supreme Court Questions Constitutionality of Death Penalty

I. Beverly Lake, Jr. — a staunch sup­port­er of North Carolina​’s death penal­ty dur­ing his years as a State Senator and who, as a for­mer Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, repeat­ed­ly vot­ed to uphold death sen­tences — has changed his stance on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. In a recent piece for The Huffington Post, Lake said he not only sup­port­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as a State Senator, he ​“vig­or­ous­ly advo­cat­ed” for it and ​“cast my vote at appro­pri­ate times to uphold that harsh and most final sen­tence” as Chief Justice. His views have evolved,…

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 police depart­men­t’s crime lab problems…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Jul 03, 2008

NEW VOICES: Former FL Supreme Court Judge Says Capital Punishment System is Broken

Gerald Kogan, for­mer Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, who has also served as a pros­e­cu­tor, defense attor­ney, and tri­al judge, recent­ly expressed con­cerns about Florida’s death penal­ty sys­tem. ​“Florida’s sys­tem of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is bro­ken,” he wrote in the St. Petersburg Times. ​“Florida’s jus­tice sys­tem fails on many fronts.” He point­ed out that ​“Florida has become the hold­er of a dubi­ous dis­tinc­tion: more indi­vid­u­als con­vict­ed of mur­der (22) have been exon­er­at­ed from our death row than any oth­er in the coun­try.” The state car­ried out its first execution…

Nov 17, 2004

NEW VOICES: Former Missouri Chief Justice Reiterates His Concerns about Capital Punishment

Former Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Blackmar recent­ly reit­er­at­ed his oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty and his con­cerns about wrong­ful con­vic­tions, not­ing that the exon­er­a­tion of Missouri death row inmate Joseph Amrine ​“makes me won­der how many peo­ple there are who were wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed.” Amrine spent 26 years in prison, 17 of them on death row, before his con­vic­tion was over­turned and he was released in July 2003. ​“The les­son is that peo­ple were per­suad­ed even­tu­al­ly that he was inno­cent. But there are a fair num­ber of peo­ple who…

Policy Issues

Sentencing Alternatives

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New Voices

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Jan 17, 2007

NEW VOICES: Former N. J. Supreme Court Justice Urges State to Face Reality on the Death Penalty

In an opin­ion piece in the New York Times, for­mer New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Peter G. Verniero (pic­tured) said that the state should replace its flawed death penal­ty with the sen­tence of life with­out parole. Verniero is a for­mer sup­port­er of the death penal­ty, but now believes that the cur­rent statute is ​“inef­fec­tive,” ​“con­sumes enor­mous ener­gy and resources,” and the state ​“lacks the col­lec­tive will to car­ry out cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.” He wrote:

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Deterrence

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Recent Legislative Activity

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New Voices

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Mar 27, 2014

NEW VOICES: Former New Hampshire Justices Support Death Penalty Repeal

Two for­mer jus­tices of the New Hampshire Supreme Court recent­ly voiced their sup­port for repeal­ing the death penal­ty. In an op-ed, Joseph Nadeau (l.) and John Broderick (r.) empha­sized the death penal­ty’s lack of deter­rent effect, say­ing, ​“New Hampshire has not exe­cut­ed any­one for three quar­ters of a cen­tu­ry. Yet, it reg­is­tered the sec­ond low­est mur­der rate in the nation every year of this cen­tu­ry.” Murder rates were high­er in heavy-use death penal­ty states, they not­ed. The for­mer jus­tices said the deci­sion to seek the death penal­ty is often ​“ran­dom”…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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New Voices

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May 20, 2008

NEW VOICES: Former New Jersey Supreme Court Justices Discuss the Failure of the Death Penalty Law

Former mem­bers of the New Jersey Supreme Court recent­ly shared their insights on the death penal­ty at a sym­po­sium spon­sored by Seton Hall and Fordham law schools, and by the the New York City and New Jersey State Bar asso­ci­a­tions. Five for­mer mem­bers of the Court, includ­ing two chief jus­tices, reviewed the 25 years of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in New Jersey before 2007’s repeal of the death penal­ty. Their con­clu­sions echoed the opin­ion of Justice Barry Albin in State v. Wakefield (2007) that, com­pared to mur­der­ers serv­ing 30 years to life…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Oct 22, 2007

NEW VOICES: Former Tennessee Attorney General and Federal Judge Cite Crisis in State’s Death Penalty

A for­mer Tennessee Attorney General, W.J. Cody, and a U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Gilbert Merritt, both mem­bers of the American Bar Association’s Tennessee Death Penalty Assessment Team, called on pol­i­cy­mak­ers to thor­ough­ly review the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment laws and imple­ment sig­nif­i­cant changes that address con­cerns such as wrong­ful con­vic­tions, meet­ing the needs of vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers, and ensur­ing that the state com­plies with min­i­mum stan­dards required for fair­ness in cap­i­tal tri­als. According to Cody, who also served as a U.S. Attorney, and Judge Merritt of the Sixth Circuit, who…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Race

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Representation

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New Voices

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Jan 17, 2019

New Voices: Former Texas Criminal Appeals Judge Suggests ​“Pause” on Texas Death Penalty

Retiring Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge and for­mer pros­e­cu­tor Elsa Alcala now believes that the death penal­ty is unre­li­ably and dis­crim­i­na­to­ri­ly applied in the nation’s most aggres­sive cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment state. In a new Houston Chronicle ​“Behind the Walls” pod­cast, Judge Alcala – who calls her­self ​“a Republican hang­ing on by a thread” – told reporter Keri Blakinger, ​“I think we know enough right now to even call for a mora­to­ri­um or just to pause all of this and to say, you know, ​‘What is going on? Why does Texas…

Policy Issues

Sentencing Alternatives

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Victims' Families

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New Voices

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Jan 29, 2008

NEW VOICES: Judge Calls Death Penalty ​“an out­ra­geous way to penal­ize victims”

Maryland Judge Joseph P. Manck sought to lessen the pain and frus­tra­tion to the vic­tims’ fam­i­ly by sen­tenc­ing a defen­dant to life in prison with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole instead of the death penal­ty. In choos­ing a life sen­tence for Brandon Morris for the mur­der of cor­rec­tion­al offi­cer Jeffrey Wroten, Judge Manck not­ed that appeals in death penal­ty cas­es can stretch on for years. He cit­ed one case that has been going on for 25 years and said that vic­tims’ fam­i­lies often must sit through painful retri­als, lis­ten­ing to defendants…

Facts & Research

New Voices

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Jul 22, 2015

NEW VOICES: Ninth Circuit Judge Calls for Sweeping Criminal Justice Reform

In a recent arti­cle for the Georgetown Law Journal, Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit calls for sweep­ing reforms in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. The for­mer Chief Judge, who was appoint­ed by President Reagan in 1985, out­lined a num­ber of ​“myths” about the legal sys­tem, rais­ing ques­tions about the reli­a­bil­i­ty of eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny, fin­ger­print evi­dence, and even DNA evi­dence, which can eas­i­ly be contaminated.

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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New Voices

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Jan 28, 2013

NEW VOICES: Ohio Supreme Court Justice Calls Death Penalty Unconstitutional

Ohio Supreme Court Justice William O’Neill recent­ly vot­ed to strike down the death penal­ty, when he dis­sent­ed in an order set­ting an exe­cu­tion date for Jeffrey Wogenstahl. Justice O’Neill wrote, ​“I would hold that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment vio­lates the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and Article I, Section 9 of the Ohio Constitution. The death penal­ty is inher­ent­ly both cru­el and unusu­al and there­fore is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. Capital pun­ish­ment dates back to the days when decap­i­ta­tions, hang­ings, and brand­ings were also the norm. Surely, our soci­ety has evolved…

Policy Issues

Mental Illness

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New Voices

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Nov 01, 2006

NEW VOICES: Ohio Supreme Court Justice Says Mentally Ill Should be Exempt from Death Penalty

Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton of the Ohio Supreme Court called upon the leg­is­la­ture to exempt defen­dants with seri­ous men­tal ill­ness from the death penal­ty. Judge Stratton con­curred in the affir­mance of the death sen­tence for Donald Ketterer. She not­ed that she was not ques­tion­ing Ketterer’s guilt, nor whether he was com­pe­tent to stand tri­al, nor even his pos­si­ble men­tal retar­da­tion, all of which are cov­ered by oth­er aspects of the law. Rather the judge said she was con­strained by exist­ing law to uphold the death sen­tence, even though she believed…

Oct 27, 2004

NEW VOICES: Texas Judge Calls for Halt to Executions

Judge Tom Price, a 30-year vet­er­an Republican jurist on Texas’s high­est crim­i­nal court, recent­ly stat­ed that those on the state’s death row con­vict­ed with evi­dence from the Houston Police Department crime lab should not be exe­cut­ed until ques­tions about its work are resolved. Price called for a lim­it­ed mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, say­ing, ​“I think it would be pru­dent to delay fur­ther exe­cu­tions until we have had a chance to have this evi­dence inde­pen­dent­ly ver­i­fied. Once a death sen­tence is car­ried out, you can­not reverse that.” The call came after Price…

Nov 10, 2003

NEW VOICES: Washington Judge States Death Penalty ​“No Longer Has Validity”

In a Seattle Times op-ed reflect­ing on the plea agree­ment for ser­i­al killer Gary Ridgway result­ing in a life with­out parole sen­tence (read more), Washington State Superior Court Judge David A. Nichols stat­ed that the ​“death penal­ty as a response to any crim­i­nal behav­ior no longer has valid­i­ty and should be repealed, because it is impos­si­ble to admin­is­ter with jus­tice and fair­ness.” He fur­ther noted:

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 rec­om­mend­ed the death penal­ty” had the jury been pro­vid­ed com­plete infor­ma­tion about Tibbetts’ upbring­ing. Tibbetts’ clemen­cy application…

Policy Issues

Arbitrariness

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Sentencing Alternatives

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New Voices

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Apr 03, 2006

Washington Supreme Court Closely Divided on Rationality of State’s Death Penalty

The Washington State Supreme Court recent­ly came with­in one vote of effec­tive­ly abol­ish­ing the state’s death penal­ty when it ruled in the case of death row inmate Dayva Cross. Cross is on death row for the mur­der of his wife and her two teenage daugh­ters. Attorneys for Cross had argued that their client should not be exe­cut­ed because killers who had com­mit­ted worse crimes had been spared the death penal­ty. The 2003 case of Green River Killer Gary Ridgway, who received a life sen­tence in exchange for a detailed confession…