Publications & Testimony

NEWS (3/​19/​20): Florida — The Florida Supreme Court has denied new sen­tenc­ing hear­ings to two more death-row pris­on­ers who were sen­tenced to death after non-unan­i­mous sen­tenc­ing rec­om­men­da­tions by their juries. Relying on the court’s January 23, 2020 deci­sion in State v. Poole that aban­doned its require­ment of unan­i­mous sen­tenc­ing rec­om­men­da­tions, the court upheld death sen­tences imposed on Grover Reed and Lucious…

Virginia​’s death row shrank to just two pris­on­ers on March 12 as recent­ly elect­ed Fairfax County, Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve T. Descano agreed to a deal to resen­tence for­mer death-row pris­on­er Mark Lawlor (pic­tured) to life with­out parole. Lawlor was sen­tenced to death in 2011 for the mur­der of Genevieve Orange. No one has been sen­tenced to death in Virginia…

Responding to esca­lat­ing health con­cerns caused by the COVID-19 coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has tem­porar­i­ly halt­ed the exe­cu­tion of John Hummel. In an order issued on March 16, 2020, the TCCA stayed Hummel’s exe­cu­tion, which had been sched­uled for March 18, for 60 days, say­ing the delay was nec­es­sary ​“in light of the cur­rent health cri­sis and the enor­mous resources need­ed to address that…

More than forty years after he was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death by an all-white Columbus, Georgia jury for the rape and mur­der of a 19-year-old white woman, Johnny Lee Gates (pic­tured) will be get­ting a new tri­al. On March 13, 2020, the Georgia Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly held that DNA con­tained on phys­i­cal evi­dence that police and pros­e­cu­tors had with­held for decades raised ​“sig­nif­i­cant doubt” as to Gates’…

Capital sen­tenc­ing schemes that per­mit judges to impose a death sen­tence despite the votes of one or more jurors for life cre­ate a height­ened risk that an inno­cent per­son will be wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death, accord­ing to a new Death Penalty Information Center analy­sis of death-row exoneration…

NEWS (3/​13/​20): The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission vot­ed 5 – 3 on March 13, 2020 to empan­el a three-judge review com­mit­tee to deter­mine whether four men con­vict­ed as teens should be exon­er­at­ed of the mur­der of NBA star Chris Paul’s grand­fa­ther, Nathaniel Jones. A fifth teen con­vict­ed in the mur­der died before he could sub­mit his case for review by the…

NEWS (3/​12/​20): The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled on March 12, 2020 that death-row pris­on­er Jerry Lard, who lawyers say is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled, may waive his post-conviction…

NEWS (3/​12/​20): The Florida Supreme Court on March 12, 2020 denied death-row pris­on­er Hector Sanchez-Torres​’s post-con­vic­tion chal­lenge to his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence for a 2008 armed rob­bery and mur­der. In an unsigned opin­ion, the court ruled that Sanchez-Torres’s coun­sel had not been inef­fec­tive in advis­ing him to plead guilty to the charges and to waive a sen­tenc­ing jury based on counsel’s belief that ​“a Clay County jury would…

NEWS (3/​12/​20): Citing a 14-year delay by fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors in bring­ing the case to tri­al, a fed­er­al dis­trict court in Texas has dis­missed a fed­er­al cap­i­tal mur­der indict­ment against a Salvadoran man charged with killing two Honduran…