Collections : [National Death Penalty Archive]

Watt Espy kept a series of index cards, grouped mainly by state, that records information about executions on American soil (colonies, states, territories) since the 1600s. Some cards contain lots of information, including name, place of execution, method, and details of the crime. Other cards have very little information aside from the fact that someone was executed. Sometimes there is not even a name—just "two slaves" or "pirate". There are additional categories for federal, military, and indigenous executions. There are two different card sizes; for the 3x5 inch cards, each state, territory, or other main division is identified with a manila tab. Subdivisions are marked with blue, unlined cards and are intended to mirror the arrangement of materials in Series #2 as closely as possible.

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.

Series contains records from Leigh Bienen's participation in the New Jersey Proportionality Review Project led by Special Master David C. Baldus. This includes correspondence, data gathering information, data tables, and multiple case briefs for the major cases involved in the proportionality review including New Jersey v. Robert O. Marshall, New Jersey v. Marko Bey, and New Jersey v. John Martini.

This series comprises the bulk of Watt Espy's primary and secondary research and is therefore the largest in the collection. Initially, approximately half of these documentation of execution records were arranged in an organized fashion alphabetically by state, or by federal, military, tribal or international categories and then alphabetically by an individual's name. The others were not arranged in any discernable scheme with a significant amount of materials kept as unorganized loose documents in boxes. Espy marked some files as "not written up," but it was ultimately unclear how these differed from other records. After careful review, the archivists decided to combine all of the documentation of executions together, divided the records into five subseries for executions conducted by all 50 states and the District of Columbia, federal executions, military executions, indigenous executions, and international executions, and subsequently arranged and inter-filed all the loose materials.

This series includes documents related to Bill Babbitt's campaign to end the death penalty and media coverage about Manny Babbitt's case. Correspondence, speeches, documents from the organizations Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation and Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, pamphlets from various conferences, records of Bill's travels to advocate against capital punishment, background information and data on capital punishment, and a printed tribute to Manny Babbitt comprise this series. There also is substantials news coverage about Manny and Bill Babbitt in print, audio, and video formats.

This series consists exclusively of the annual reports on prison and jail conditions that the Prison Association/Correctional Association submitted to the New York State Assembly. The reports contain minutes of meetings, presidential addresses, committee reports, reports on individual prisons and prison conditions, prison reform campaigns in New York State, transcripts of testimony before the NYS legislature on pending policy measures, and lists of members and corresponding members of the Association. Reports published during the latter half of the nineteenth century chronicle the Association's role in establishing national and international prison reform organizations and conferences and furnish information about prison policies elsewhere in the United States and the world.

This series contains files associated with Michael Mellos research for his publications, his legal work, or his classroom work. The research files cover a range of topics including juveniles on death row, jury override, and the adequate representation for indigent inmates and represent legal materials, academic articles, newspaper articles, and correspondence regarding various cases and legal issues.

This series consists of the general research and reference file of Leigh Bienen. This includes publications, reports, and legislation on subjects such as capital punishment, criminal law, rape, and prison reform.

This series contains a number of materials that Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty researched or used to further the organization's efforts to end capital punishment in Virginia. Topics consist of the juvenile death penalty, lethal injection, and national and international stances on the death penalty. Formats include clippings, journal articles, VHS tapes, banners, and a customized license plate.