Publications & Testimony

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…

NEWS (3/​25/​20): Pennsylvania — Citing lack of juris­dic­tion, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas has vacat­ed an emer­gency order it issued on Saturday that had direct­ed the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PaDOC) to trans­port Walter Ogrod from death row to an inde­pen­dent hos­pi­tal to obtain imme­di­ate test­ing and treat­ment for symp­toms of the COVID-19 coro­n­avirus.

On March 23, 2020, Colorado became the 22^nd U.S. state to abol­ish the death penal­ty, as Governor Jared Polis (pic­tured) signed leg­is­la­tion repeal­ing the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statute and com­mut­ed the sen­tences of the state’s three death-row pris­on­ers to life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. The state was the tenth to leg­isla­tive­ly or judi­cial­ly abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the past fifteen…

A Birmingham judge has denied a new tri­al to Alabama death-row pris­on­er Toforest Johnson (pic­tured, cen­ter), say­ing he had not proven his claim that his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence for the killing of a sheriff’s deputy in 1995 were the prod­uct of prosecutorial…

NEWS (3/​23/​20): U.S. Supreme Court — The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against a Kansas death-row pris­on­er who had argued his con­vic­tion vio­lat­ed due process because he had not been per­mit­ted to present an insan­i­ty defense. In a 6 – 3 deci­sion authored by Justice Elena Kagan, the Court upheld the con­vic­tion of James Kahler for mur­der­ing his estranged wife, two teenage daugh­ters, and a fourth fam­i­ly mem­ber in 2009, while in a state of severe depres­sion from the…