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Roman Catholic Sister Helen Prejean tours the nation to speak against capital punishment, experiences that culminated in a Pulitzer-nominated book, “Dead Man Walking.” Tuesday night’s talk in Willamette University’s Cone Chapel marked the sister’s fourth visit to Oregon.

On September 28, Damon Thibodeaux was freed from death row in Louisiana after an extensive investigation, including DNA testing and the cooperation of Jefferson Parrish District Attorney Paul Connick. Thibodeaux was sentenced to death for the 1996 rape and murder of his cousin. He at first confessed to the attack after a nine-hour interrogation by detectives. He recanted a few hours later and claimed his confession was coerced.

Dr. Hugo Bedau, a long-time professor of philosophy at Tufts University, died earlier this week ( New York Times , August 17, 2012, p. B14). He was
born in Portland. Professor Bedau devoted much of his career to the systematic, rigorous and socially conscious study of the death penalty and
made his scholarship relevant for legislators, other policy makers, the courts and the legal profession in general. He wrote, among many other

Death row inmate Gary Haugen won a legal battle Friday against Gov. John Kitzhaber when a judge ruled he could reject the governor's reprieve of his execution and move forward in his efforts to die by lethal injection. The opinion by Senior Judge Timothy P. Alexander is expected to initiate new adversarial proceedings between the prisoner who volunteered to die and the governor who had a change of heart about capital punishment.

June 22, 2012 LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Arkansas Supreme Court struck down the state's execution law Friday, but did not deem lethal injection or the death penalty unconstitutional.

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