On October 23, 2009, the American Law Institute (ALI) Council voted overwhelmingly, with only a few abstentions, to accept the resolution of the capital punishment matter as approved by the Institute’s membership at the 2009 Annual Meeting in May. The resolution adopted at the Annual Meeting and now accepted by the Council reads as follows:

“For reasons stated in Part V of the Council’s report to the membership, the Institute withdraws Section 210.6 of the Model Penal Code in light of the current intractable institutional and structural obstacles to ensuring a minimally adequate system for administering capital punishment.”

The ALI is a highly distinguished and very influential legal institute, that over the years, has composed model statutes and “restatements of the law” in a wide variety of legal fields. A large number of the ALI’s model statutes and “restatements of the law” have been adopted by state legislatures and courts throughout the country as part of a movement over the past 50 years to bring some uniformity to the laws of the different states.

Before Furman was decided in 1972, the ALI had issued a model death penalty statute. When Furman struck down all of the then-existing state death penalty statutes, several states adopted new statutes patterned after the ALI model statute. In 1976, the Supreme Court decided Gregg v. Georgia which approved Georgia’s version of the ALI model statute. Shortly thereafter, virtually all of the death penalty states, including Tennessee, followed suit and adopted their own death penalty statutes patterned after the ALI model.

The ALI model statute provided for bifurcated hearings – guilt and sentencing – along with statutorily defined aggravating and mitigating circumstances and the requirement for juries to consider aggravators vs mitigation in reaching a final sentencing decision. This kind of statute purportedly calls for “guided” or “channeled” sentencing discretion – a supposed compromise between the discretionary statutes struck down in Furman and the strictly mandatory statutes which the Court also held to be unconstitutional in 1976.

Therefore, it is highly significant that the ALI has now withdrawn its model death penalty statute – which provided the template for virtually all of the existing death penalty statutes in our country -- on the grounds that it doesn’t work.

At noon, on November 9, in Flynn Auditorium at Vanderbilt Law School, two leading death penalty scholars will debate the issue of capital punishment. Ken Hass, professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, and District Attorney, Joshua Marquis of Clatsop Co., Oregon, will argue their positions on capital punishment with attendees choosing the winner of the debate by exiting through designated doors. Law Professor Christopher Slobogin of Vanderbilt will moderate.

Learn more about this event here.

A new development in the widely publicized trial of Lemaricus Davidson, found guilty this week of the brutal murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom in Knoxville: Judge Richard Baumgartner ruled today for the first time in Knox County judicial history that he will instruct Davidson's jury that it is more expensive to execute Davidson than to give him life without parole.

Baumgartner will cite a 2004 cost study by the Tennessee Comptroller. This is the same study cited by the Comptroller's office in testimony provided to the Death Penalty Study Committee in 2007 in which the comptroller admitted that the 2004 study did not actually account for the full cost of the death penalty system to taxpayers as there is no centralized way to track the data in Tennessee. In other words, the 2004 study does not even get at the actual costs and still shows the death penalty is more expensive.

Regardless of what the jury decides in this case, jurors and citizens alike need to understand that if Davidson receives a death sentence, far more money will be spent on him than if he does not. The question we must ask ourselves is, "With life without parole as an alternative in this case, would taxpayer money be better spent on assistance to victims' families and on effective crime-fighting measures that might prevent such tragedies in the future or on Davidson's execution?"

Read the story here.

As I was driving to Memphis on Thursday for the Voices on the Death Penalty panel, I was listening to NPR. The topic was Texas Governor Rick Perry's decision to replace members of a state commission investigating the case of Cameron Todd Willingham. Willingham was executed in Texas in 2004 though national arson experts prior to his execution and more since, have stated that there was no arson in this case and that Willingham was wrongfully convicted and executed.

A surprising guest on the program was former Texas Governor and strong supporter of the death penalty, Mark White, who now has serious reservations about the continued use of the death penalty as a public policy. He stated, "There is a very strong case to be made for a review of our death penalty statutes and even look at the possibility of having life without parole so we don’t look up one day and determine that we as the State of Texas have executed someone who is in fact innocent." Governor White said that the Willingham case is one example “of why I think the system is so unreliable.”

I am encouraged by Governor White's acknowledgement that the system cannot be trusted to always get it right and that with less costly alternatives available, we do not need the death penalty. I hope other lawmakers are listening.

Listen to the story here.

Nearly 120 people turned out on a rainy Memphis evening to attend Voices on the Death Penalty: A Dialogue from the Front Lines. For over an hour, attendees heard the powerful stories of those who have been directly affected by the death penalty and why they now are working to end this public policy.

Kathy Kent, a public defender in Memphis, shared her gut-wrenching journey of loss and continued healing since the murder of her brother, Kenny, in the Oklahoma City bombing. She shared her anger and pain but also her conviction that Timothy McVeigh's execution did nothing to bring her peace. In fact, she stated that it only brought the same pain she was experiencing to McVeigh's family--a family who had done nothing wrong.

Joyce House opened her presentation by saying, "When I have done such presentations in the past, I have always carried a picture of Paul with me. Now, I don't have a picture because I have him here!" And indeed, Paul Gregory House, the 132nd exoneree in the nation and the second in Tennessee, was at the panel sitting quietly near his mother in his wheelchair (Paul House pictured above with Joyce House and Stacy Rector) as she told about their frustrating experience of fighting his conviction for nearly 23 years before his release from death row.

Ron McAndrew captivated the audience with his journey from a strong death penalty proponent and warden of Florida State Prison--overseeing executions--to a consultant now working out his mental pain by talking about his experiences and his opposition to the death penalty. His story is profound, and his ability to carry you along with him on his journey makes an impression. Ron leaves listeners with a lot to consider about how the death penalty affects those who are asked to carry it out.

Finally, I gave a presentation about the death penalty in Tennessee--how it is unfairly applied, costly, and risks the execution of an innocent person. I also shared some about my personal journey with Steve Henley.

So many people had questions that we ran out of time, but we hope to replicate this event in other cities across the state. Thanks to our Memphis chapter and to Rhodes College for their fine work in pulling this event together.

"Thirty-five states still retain the death penalty, but fewer and fewer executions are taking place every year," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). "But the overall death row population has remained relatively steady. At a time of budget shortfalls nationwide, the death penalty is turning into an expensive form of life without parole." Dieter made these comments to CNN today with the release of a new report, commissioned by DPIC, on the cost of the death penalty.

The study found that death penalty costs can average $10 million more per year per state than life sentences. Increased costs include more security and guaranteed access to lengthy appeals.

In 2007, the Tennessee State Comptrollers office testified to the legislative Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty in Tennessee that the state has no way to know exactly what it is spending on the death penalty as it has no centralized way to track the data. Even so, a 2004 report by the Tennessee Comptrollers office still showed the death penalty system to be more expensive than one which utilizes life without parole as its maximum punishment. As Nashville attorney and author of Tennessee's death penalty statute stated in his own testimony to the Committee, "The death penalty in Tennessee is a luxury item in the budget."

With Tennessee having executed 5 people in the modern era and released 2 who spent more than 20 years each fighting their convictions, is this a policy that we can say is really working for us?

Released with the DPIC study was a privately conducted poll of 500 police chiefs showing that the death penalty ranked last among their priorities for reducing violent crime. Adding more police officers ranked first. Perhaps Tennessee could make such life saving additions to our police departments statewide if we freed up money wasted on the death penalty.

Read the full report here.

On Thursday, October 22 at 7:00 at Rhodes College in Memphis, a panel of speakers will share their perspectives on the death penalty. Each of these panelists has been directly touched by this issue in a personal way.

Paul and Joyce House will be there for their first time together speaking in a public forum. Paul was released from death row in 2008 after he served 22 years for a crime that new evidence (including DNA) demonstrated he didn't commit. All the charges against him were finally dropped in May 2009. His mother, Joyce, has been a tireless advocate for her son, speaking to audiences statewide, including many lawmakers, concerning Paul and the problems with Tennessee's death penalty system.

Kathy Kent will also share her personal journey as a murder victim's family member. She is a criminal defense attorney who lives and practices in Memphis, Tennessee, and has been representing indigent defendants for fifteen years. In 1995, Kathy's brother, Ken McCullough, lost his life in the Oklahoma City bombing. He was one of the eight federal agents for whose murders Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death and executed.

I will also be a member of the panel as director of TCASK (soon to be Tennesseans for Altneratives to the Death Penalty or TADP) but also as the spiritual advisor to Steve Henley, who I visited on death row for nearly 10 years before his execution in February. Having witnessed an execution, an experience I live with everyday, this issue is not only a policy and moral issue for me but a personal one as well.

The final panelist is Ron McAndrew who has spent his career in corrections. He began his career in Florida in 1978 and climbed the ranks to the position of Warden at Florida State Prison. In 1996, Mr. McAndrew oversaw his first execution followed by the execution of two other men, including Pedro Medina whose electrocution went awry causing Medina to catch fire. One year after this experience, Mr. McAndrew was transferred from Florida State Prison to the warden's position at the Central Florida Reception Center. For the past four years, Mr. McAndrew has worked as a prison and jail consultant.

I heard Ron speak last year at the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty conference, and the entire room was spellbound. A longtime supporter of the death penalty, Ron's own journey within the death penalty system has led him now to oppose the continued use of the death penalty in our country. As a former warden, he, as much as anyone, understands the realities of violent crime in our communities but does not believe that the death penalty reduces that violence. In fact, the death penalty is only another form of it.

I hope any of you in the Memphis area will be in attendance for this extraordinary event. I can assure you the stories will be ones you won't soon forget.

The story of Cameron Todd Willingham, an almost certainly innocent man executed in Texas, continues to garner national attention. The latest turn of events in the continuing saga of this case only demonstrates the obvious desperation of Texas Governor Rick Perry to keep the truth from coming out.

In 2005, the state of Texas established a commission, the Texas Forensic Science Commission, to investigate allegations of error and misconduct by forensic scientists. Willingham's is one of the first cases the Commission reviewed. Noted fire scientist, Craig Beyler, who was hired by the commission, completed his investigation in mid-August and issued a scathing report. He concluded that the original investigators in the Willingham case had no scientific evidence for claiming an arson occurred and that they ignored evidence that contradicted their theory.

The Texas Forensic Science Commission was scheduled to present its findings in a recent public hearing. But, before the hearing could take place, Gov. Rick Perry replaced three commissioners on the board and appointed Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley as the new chairman of the commission. Bradley’s first act as chairman was to cancel the hearing. This decision to change the board structure so late in the process appears to indicate that Perry's restructuring was actually meant to thwart questions about Willingham’s 2004 execution. Read more here.

On October 2, even as the facts of the Willingham case continue to be revealed, two men were released from Oklahoma’s death row after serving almost 15 years. Yancy Douglas and Paris Powell became the 137th and 138th exonerees from death row when evidence of their wrongful conviction emerged.

You can go to http://www.dpic.org/ for more information concerning these latest examples of justice delayed and justice denied.

This week is Death Penalty Awareness Week at Vanderbilt University, hosted by Amnesty International. Last night they kicked off the week with the showing of, At Death House Door. A good crowd showed up to watch the documentary that delves into the story of Carroll Pickett--the former Chaplain for the Texas Department of Corrections. During Pickett's time with the Department of Corrections (1982-1995), he counseled 95 inmates executed by lethal injection. This film, directed by Steve James and Peter Gilbert, documents Pickett's ideological transformation that happens over the course of his work. He goes from supporting to opposing the death penalty in large part because of one specific inmate, Carlos De Luna. Carlos De Luna was executed in 1989 for crime that he probably did not commit. I encourage you all to read the story of Carlos De Luna--the above link will take you to the article the NCADP wrote on this man. At Death House Door is a powerful and moving movie that explores the important issues that surround the debate on the death penalty, including: lethal injection, wrongful conviction, morality and religion.

After the film, three panelists, including our own Stacy Rector, were there to discuss the film with the viewers. There was much discussion on the complex Carroll Pickett himself and the transformation that he went through, as well as the theological and ethical issues that come into play surrounding this issue.

On Thursday, October 1, Amnesty will host Shane Truett, a local attorney whose brother was murdered when Shane was a teenager. He will be speaking on why he is anti-death penalty. This event takes place at 7 p.m. in Buttrick 102.

We hope to see you there!

In 2006, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that there has not been "a single case - not one - in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit. If such an event had occurred in recent years, we would not have to hunt for it; the innocent's name would be shouted from the rooftops."

Please check out the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty's campaign to shout from the rooftops the name of Cameron Todd Willingham as well as our opposition to the continued risk of executing the innocent in our country. With alternatives like life without parole, the risk of executing an innocent person is one we do not have to take.

Please watch the video clip available on the site, featuring a number of death row exonerees, including Ray Krone, who will be speaking at Belmont University in Nashville in December.