Publications & Testimony

NEWS (6/​5/​20) — Ohio: Governor Mike DeWine (pic­tured) issued reprieves to the last three Ohio death-row pris­on­ers fac­ing exe­cu­tions dates in 2020, ensur­ing that the state will not car­ry out any exe­cu­tions this year. A news release announc­ing the action said the reprieves were grant­ed ​“due to ongo­ing prob­lems involv­ing the will­ing­ness of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal sup­pli­ers to pro­vide drugs to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC), pur­suant to DRC pro­to­col, without…

Texas death-row pris­on­er Ruben Gutierrez (pic­tured) has asked the Texas state courts to stay his exe­cu­tion because of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic as fed­er­al lit­i­ga­tion con­tin­ues on his efforts to obtain DNA test­ing and to require Texas to per­mit him to have a chap­lain present in the exe­cu­tion cham­ber if his execution…

U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker on June 1, 2020 denied a chal­lenge brought by Arkansas death-row pris­on­ers to the use of the con­tro­ver­sial drug mida­zo­lam in car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions. The rul­ing fol­lowed a two-week hear­ing on the issue held in May 2019. Lawyers for the pris­on­ers had argued that mida­zo­lam does not ade­quate­ly anes­thetize a pris­on­er dur­ing an exe­cu­tion before the sec­ond and third drugs, a par­a­lyt­ic drug and a drug that stops the heart, are admin­is­tered. An…

Atlanta is poised to become the lat­est in a grow­ing num­ber of U.S. cities in which pros­e­cu­tors have pledged not to seek the death penal­ty or to use it more…

State appeal courts in Nevada and Pennsylvania have barred the retri­al of two for­mer death-row pris­on­ers as a result of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, paving the way for their…

A Florida judge has denied death-row pris­on­er James Dailey​’s motion for a new tri­al on May 29, 2020, rul­ing that no new admis­si­ble evi­dence sup­port­ed Dailey’s claim of inno­cence. Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Pat Siracusa’s deci­sion came just one day after jour­nal­ist Pamela Colloff won a National Magazine Award for her inves­ti­ga­tion of a noto­ri­ous jail­house infor­mant who pro­vid­ed key testimony against…

A fed­er­al dis­trict court has grant­ed a new tri­al to Pennsylvania death-row pris­on­er Samuel Randolph (pic­tured), hold­ing that the tri­al court uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly denied Randolph the right to be rep­re­sent­ed by coun­sel of choice, forc­ing him to go to tri­al with an unpre­pared court-appoint­ed lawyer with whom he had an ​“absolute[,] com­plete breakdown of…

A fed­er­al dis­trict court judge has over­turned the con­vic­tion and death sen­tence of Texas death-row pris­on­er Ronald Prible, find­ing that celebri­ty ​“true crime” host Kelly Siegler (pic­tured) had engaged in exten­sive mis­con­duct as a Harris County homi­cide pros­e­cu­tor in Prible’s cap­i­tal tri­al in 2002. U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison grant­ed relief on six sep­a­rate claims that Siegler hid excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence from the defense, pro­vid­ed undis­closed favors to…

For the third time in 2020, the Florida Supreme Court has reduced the con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­tec­tions afford­ed to death-row pris­on­ers. In a May 21 deci­sion in Phillips v. State, the court over­turned its own case prece­dent and lim­it­ed enforce­ment of a U.S. Supreme Court case that bars exe­cu­tion of intellectually disabled…