Publications & Testimony

NEWS (4/​1/​20) — Texas: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has grant­ed a 60-day stay of exe­cu­tion to Fabian Hernandez, the third stay of exe­cu­tion it has grant­ed dur­ing the coro­n­avirus State of Disaster declared by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Although the court’s order does­n’t spec­i­fy a rea­son for the stay, Hernandez’s coun­sel filed a motion seek­ing to delay his exe­cu­tion based on ​“the cur­rent health cri­sis, the enor­mous resources need­ed to…

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has once again reject­ed the find­ings of a tri­al court that a death-row pris­on­er was enti­tled to relief from his con­vic­tion or death…

After receiv­ing unan­i­mous sup­port in the Florida House of Representatives, a bill that would have expand­ed access to post­con­vic­tion DNA test­ing failed in the Florida Senate when the leg­isla­tive body adjourned its 2020 leg­isla­tive ses­sion with­out tak­ing up the…

The pub­lic health cri­sis from the COVID-19 coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic has halt­ed exe­cu­tions in the United States and, legal experts say, is like­ly to con­tin­ue to do for the foreseeable…

NEWS (3/​27/​20): California — A three-judge pan­el of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (pic­tured) has affirmed a California fed­er­al dis­trict court’s denial of habeas cor­pus relief for death-row pris­on­er Rodney Berryman,…

In a deci­sion that exposed the deep divide between the United States and its European allies on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment issues, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom unan­i­mous­ly ruled that the British gov­ern­ment unlaw­ful­ly pro­vid­ed infor­ma­tion to the United States about two sus­pect­ed Islamic State mem­bers with­out first obtain­ing assur­ances that the infor­ma­tion would not be used to impose or car­ry out the death…

NEWS (3/​26/​20): Kentucky — The Kentucky Supreme Court has issued deci­sions in two cas­es pre­sent­ing sig­nif­i­cant issues con­cern­ing the applic­a­bil­i­ty of the death penal­ty against defen­dants with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty or under the age of…

NEWS (3/​25/​20): Guantánamo Bay — In an action that adds fur­ther uncer­tain­ty to the already tumul­tuous pro­ceed­ings in the Guantánamo Sept. 11 death-penal­ty tri­al, the mil­i­tary com­mis­sion judge pre­sid­ing over the case has announced that he will be retir­ing from military…

NEWS (3/​26/​20): Pennsylvania — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has upheld a tri­al court rul­ing grant­i­ng a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing to death-row pris­on­er William Housman, agree­ing that Housman’s defense coun­sel had failed to inves­ti­gate and present mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence that might have per­suad­ed his jury to spare his…

Georgia death-row pris­on­er Billy Daniel Raulerson, Jr. (pic­tured) is ask­ing the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a state law that, he argues, is per­mit­ting Georgia to uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly exe­cute indi­vid­u­als with Intellectual Disability. On March 27, 2020, the Court is sched­uled to con­sid­er whether to hear the case of Raulerson v. Warden and to review the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Georgia’s evi­den­tiary require­ment that cap­i­tal defen­dants prove they are…