New Media Mill Unveils Death Row Data Base

Searchable databases can save thousands of staff hours otherwise lost to sharing information over the telephone or e-mail. Here's one group that seized the potential ... and commissioned the Death Row Database.

For years, the Death Penalty Information Center has been the "go to" group for reporters, students and just about anyone who needs facts about capital punishment.

But all those inquiries had a way of swarming the small group's hard-working staff. Not surprisingly, they were intrigued when New Media Mill proposed a solution.

The proposal was to create a "Death Row Database" which could be used by anyone visiting website. The idea was to allow users to retrieve information about executions by typing in a few parameters.

"We wanted people to use our site, not just passively browse through it. And, we wanted them to return often", explains Dick Dieter, executive director. "Interactive tools such as our searchable database make that happen."

Want to know how many women have been executed in Texas since 1990? No problem. How about the races of those who were executed ...and their victims? DPIC included that in the database, too.

But the interactivity does not stop there. The group's site is fairly bristling with dynamic tools. Users who click on a still image from the home page will bring up streaming video interviews with death row inmates, some of whom were exonerated and released, and others who did not leave prison alive.

It's a serious issue area, backed by some serious web tools. The website uses New Media Mill's 3D (dynamic, database-driven) Site Builder, an automatic web page publishing tool.

Point your browser to www.deathpenaltyinfo.org to learn more about the Death Penalty Information Center -- and examine the dynamic tools of New Media Mill.