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33 Colum. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 527 (2001-2002)
New Death Penalty Debate: What's DNA Got to Do with It

handle is hein.journals/colhr33 and id is 539 raw text is: THE NEW DEATH PENALTY DEBATE: WHAT'S DNA GOT TO DO WITH IT? by James S. Liebman* The nation is engaged in the most intensive discussion of the death penalty in decades.1 Temporary moratoria on executions are effectively in place in Illinois' and Maryland,3 and during the winter 2001 legislative cycle legislation to adopt those pauses elsewhere cleared committees or one or more houses of the legislature, not only in Connecticut (passed the Senate Judiciary Committee) and Maryland (where it passed the entire House, and the Senate Judiciary Committee) but in Nevada (passed the Senate) and Texas (passed committees in both Houses).4 In the last year, abolition bills * Simon H. Rifkind Professor of Law, Columbia Law School. This essay is a revised version of a speech given at the University of California, Berkeley. James S. Liebman, Address at DNA and Human Rights, An International Conference (Apr. 27, 2001). Events described are current through August 2001. 1. See, e.g., Toni Locy, Push to Reform Death Penalty Growing; Mistakes Could Shake Confidence in System, U.S.A. Today, Feb. 20, 2001, at 5A; Emilie Lounsberry, Death Penalty's Fairness Debated Nationwide, Phila. Inquirer, June 8, 2001, at A9. 2. See, e.g., Dirk Johnson, Illinois, Citing Faulty Verdicts, Bars Executions, N.Y. Times, Feb. 1, 2000, at Al. 3. See, e.g., Editorial, Maryland's Execution Pause, Wash. Post, Apr. 15, 2001, at B6 (The Maryland Court of Appeals on Thursday accomplished what the state's legislature failed to do a few days earlier-put a temporary halt on executions in the state.). 4. See, e.g., Support for Death Penalty Drops (ABC television broadcast, May 2, 2001) (reporting that major campaigns to suspend executions have been launched in 19 states in 2001); Death Penalty Info. Ctr., Changes in the Death Penalty Around the U.S.: 2000-2001, http/www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/Changes. html (last visited Oct. 28, 2001) (on file with Columbia Human Rights Law Review).

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