Elisabeth Semel quoted in NPR, December 14, 2018 In an interview with NPR, Elisabeth Semel, director of the Death Penalty Clinic at Berkeley Law school said that despite the fact that executions are up slightly from a 25-year low in 2016, “there’s no question that this is a dramatic downward trend.” Semel said Americans’ support of […]
Florida Executes Inmate As Report Cites ‘Continuing Erosion’ Of Death Penalty
Capital Beat: Repeal aside, New Hampshire not ready for executions
Elisabeth Semel and Franklin Zimring quoted by Concord Monitor, April 30, 2018 Protocols that were designed poorly or improperly have opened some states up to constitutional challenges upon implementation, according to Elisabeth Semel … tying them up in even more legal delays. … “It sounds like New Hampshire has a lot of work to do,” […]
An L.A. court mistakenly destroyed evidence a death row inmate says would free him. Now what?
Elisabeth Semel quoted by Los Angeles Times, Dec. 17, 2017 “If the very evidence you need is gone … how do you make justice happen for these individuals?” she said, describing the scenario as “terribly, terribly devastating.”
Prop 66 survives state Supreme Court but loses its fangs
Elisabeth Semel quoted by Daily Journal (registration required), Aug. 25, 2017 If one views the five-year deadline as the heart of the initiative, said Elisabeth Semel … the decision can be seen as a victory for opponents of Proposition 66. “At the end of the day, this is what voters were told was the most […]
Court to hear challenge to speed up California executions
Elisabeth Semel quoted by Associated Press, June 6, 2017 With a backlog of 380 death penalty appeals, there’s concern judges would be overwhelmed trying to speed through appeals, said Elisabeth Semel. … “There’s an enormous ripple effect to that,” said Semel, who directs the school’s death penalty clinic. “The attention the justices can pay to […]
California Supreme Court weighs proposition 66 lawsuit
Elisabeth Semel quoted by Capital Public Radio, June 6, 2017 “Because of the insistence under this initiative that cases be decided on what can only be called a about many other important cases.”
Death penalty in California: State Supreme Court holds high-stakes hearing Tuesday
Elisabeth Semel quoted by The Mercury News, June 5, 2017 Today, Semel said, the average appeal spans 15 years. To resolve the cases three times as quickly, she said, will likely mean more mistakes as each case receives less attention and offenders are represented by attorneys with limited experience in capital cases. “Where is the […]
California’s top court to decide whether planned speed-up in executions is legal
Elisabeth Semel quoted by Los Angeles Times, Jan. 8, 2017 “The court can only handle a certain number of these cases a year,” Semel said. At the pace envisioned by Proposition 66, the court would have little time to decide civil disputes, she said, adding, “It is not feasible. There are just too many cases.”
Death penalty cases may speed up, but critics say Prop. 66 will not work
Elisabeth Semel quoted by Daily Journal (registration required), Nov. 10, 2016 Prop. 66 attempts to dictate how the state Supreme Court will manage its docket and takes from the Judicial Council the authority to establish the qualifications for defending capital cases and disbursing it to superior courts, Semel said, calling the initiative “a patchwork of […]
The death penalty thrived at the ballot box, but it’s still declining
Elisabeth Semel quoted by Yahoo! News, Nov. 9, 2016 “As I talked to [voters] who were not lawyers, I found they generally understood Prop. 62 but were absolutely flummoxed by 66,” she said. “Some of them thought, ‘Well, if we can’t get rid of it, perhaps we can remedy it,’ without understanding the particulars of […]