Collections : [National Death Penalty Archive]

National Death Penalty Archive

National Death Penalty Archive

Researchers, writers, activists, and records on capital punishment in the United States.
The National Death Penalty Archive (NDPA) is a partnership between the University at Albany Libraries and the Capital Punishment Research Initiative (CPRI) at the University's School of Criminal Justice. In 1999, researchers at the School of Criminal Justice formally established the CPRI. Its overarching goals were research and education -- initiate capital punishment research activities, facilitate collaboration among researchers, and make findings and information available to legal and criminal justice policymakers, practitioners, and the public. One of the original goals of the CPRI was to establish and maintain a collection of archival materials documenting the important history of capital punishment, and to provide resources for historical scholarship. This growing collection of archival materials is housed in the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives, which is located in the University's state of the art Science Library. Open since 1999, the new archival repository includes climate-controlled storage for more than 25,000 cubic feet. The following collections have been acquired for the NDPA through the collaborative efforts of the CPRI and the University Libraries; work is continuing to build this important link to the history of capital punishment in the United States.

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Collection
Online
The Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (ICADP) formed in 1976 as the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty by Mary Alice Rankin and other activist groups and organizations to try to prevent passage of capital punishment legislation in Illinois. After the state adopted the death penalty in 1977, ICADP expanded its grassroots legislative, education, and communication activities to try to inform the public about flaws and injustices in the Illinois capital punishment system and promote humane alternatives to the death penalty.
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This series contains materials related to the various trials of Joseph Spaziano and represents material created or used by Michael Mello in Joseph Spazianos defense or during the writing of Michael Mellos book The Wrong Man: A True Story of Innocence and the Death Row; included in this series are legal materials, correspondence, notes, and research materials.

Folder

Legal Records, 1974-1991 3.8 cubic ft.

Online

This series contains legal records that are mostly official court proceedings of the Alvin Ford cases covering a period of seventeen years. These cases include State of Florida v. Ford: 1974, which covers the original trial court proceedings. Later cases that bear the same style relate to later attempts of Ford on a motion for post conviction relief and stay of execution in 1981 and a second attempt in 1987. Ford v. State of Florida:1975-1988, Ford v. Strickland et al.: 1981-1984, Ford v. Wainwright: 1981-1988, and Ford v. Dugger: 1986-1991 all represent the trial cases Ford's attorneys filed against a succession of superintendents of the Florida State Prison and secretaries of the Department of Corrections. Other proceedings include multiple trials, pleas, motions, hearings, testimonies, and appeals. Other legal records are background studies on Ford that include detailed psychiatric evaluations, medical and prison records, case summaries, and undated notes by Laurin Wollan.

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The Leigh Bienen Papers include the records of the New Jersey Proportionality Review Project, the Illinois Capital Punishment Reform Study Commission, and the academic research papers of legal scholar Leigh Bienen. The New Jersey records contain material from New Jersey Public Defender Homicide Study directed by Bienen in the mid-1980s. The collection also includes the records from Bienen's involvement with the New Jersey Proportionality Review Project headed by Special Master David C. Baldus. Also present is material from Leigh Bienen's tenure on the Illinois Capital Punishment Reform Study Commission which resulted in the abolition of the death penalty in that state in 2011. Finally the collection contains Leigh Bienen's scholarly research material during her career teaching at both Princeton University and Northwestern University. Her research focused on proportionality review, the death penalty's monetary costs, and the role of prosecutor discretion.
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The Herrera Collection contain materials associated with the life and trial of Leonel Herrera, as well as materials included in the book <em>Last Words from Death Row: The Walls Unit</em>, written by Leonel Herrera's sister, Norma Herrera Ellis.
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The Maryland Citizens Against State Executions (Maryland or MD CASE) Records contain documents from over 25 groups and 1,300 individuals that united to help successfully end the death penalty in Maryland in 2013 through education, grassroots action, and public demonstration. The collection consists of correspondence, meeting minutes, legislation, lobbying materials, subject files, special event and conference materials, case files and clippings.
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Michael Meltsner is a prominent lawyer and civil rights activist. Meltsner is also an opponent of the death penalty. The collection contains assorted capital punishment materials including clippings, journal articles, correspondence and files used in writing the death penalty chapters of Michael Meltsner's book, The Making of a Civil Rights Lawyer.