Publications & Testimony

Courts in Texas and Florida have grant­ed stays of exe­cu­tion to two men who faced immi­nent exe­cu­tion despite seri­ous ques­tions as to their involve­ment in the mur­ders for which they were sen­tenced to death. On October 22, 2019, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) stayed the exe­cu­tion of Ruben Gutierrez (pic­tured, left), which had been sched­uled for October 30. The fol­low­ing day, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida…

A Louisiana pris­on­er wrong­ful­ly pros­e­cut­ed for cap­i­tal mur­der has agreed to a plea deal that secures his free­dom after spend­ing 42 years in prison for a crime he says he did not com­mit. With the assis­tance of the Innocence Project New Orleans, Elvis Brooks (pic­tured) suc­ceed­ed in over­turn­ing his 1997 con­vic­tion and agreed to plead guilty to less­er charges in exchange for his release on October 15,…

A fed­er­al appeals court has over­turned the death sen­tences imposed on two brain dam­aged death-row pris­on­ers in cas­es sep­a­rate­ly sent back for fur­ther review by the U.S. Supreme Court. On October 15, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ordered a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing for Alabama death-row pris­on­er James McWilliams. Two days lat­er, anoth­er three-judge pan­el of the 11^th Circuit…

Under court order, Alabama has released for the first time a copy of the state’s pre­vi­ous­ly con­fi­den­tial exe­cu­tion pro­to­col. The 17-page doc­u­ment — filed on October 16, 2019 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama fed­er­al court —pur­ports to detail ​“the respon­si­bil­i­ties and pro­ce­dures for the recep­tion of a con­demned inmate, for con­fine­ment, and for exe­cu­tion and day of exe­cu­tion prepa­ra­tion” as of April…

Lawyers for Oklahoma death-row pris­on­er Julius Jones (pic­tured) have peti­tioned the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board for clemen­cy, argu­ing that Jones was wrong­ly con­vict­ed and that his tri­al was taint­ed by racial bias. The peti­tion, filed on October 15, 2019, has drawn sup­port from a diverse range of civic, civ­il rights, and faith lead­ers and crim­i­nal justice…

The American Bar Association has urged the Nevada Supreme Court to pro­hib­it the use of the death penal­ty against peo­ple who are severe­ly men­tal­ly ill. In a friend-of-the-court brief filed October 3, 2019 in the case of death-row pris­on­er Siaosi Vanisi, the ABA argued that impos­ing the death penal­ty on peo­ple with severe men­tal ill­ness serves no legit­i­mate peno­log­i­cal pur­pose and asked the court to ​“cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly pro­hib­it the…

Facing a poten­tial back­lash from major aid donors, Uganda’s pres­i­dent has attempt­ed to dis­tance his gov­ern­ment from leg­isla­tive efforts to rein­tro­duce a bill that would make con­sen­su­al same-sex acts pun­ish­able by the death penal­ty and crim­i­nal­ize ​“pro­mo­tion and recruit­ment” of homo­sex­u­al­i­ty. The so-called ​“Kill the Gays” bill pre­vi­ous­ly pro­mot­ed by gov­ern­ment offi­cials would great­ly expand the pun­ish­ment of homo­sex­u­al­i­ty under Ugandan law. The pro­posed bill is a more dra­con­ian ver­sion of a…

The case of Texas death-row pris­on­er Rodney Reed (pic­tured, right), who is fac­ing exe­cu­tion in Texas on November 20, 2019 despite pow­er­ful evi­dence of inno­cence, is attract­ing nation­al atten­tion from unusu­al sources. On October 10 and 11, the syn­di­cat­ed tele­vi­sion show Dr. Phil devot­ed two episodes to an inves­ti­ga­tion of the inno­cence claims in Reed’s…

A three-judge pan­el of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has grant­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion for fed­er­al death row pris­on­er Lezmond Mitchell to pre­vent the U.S. gov­ern­ment from exe­cut­ing him before the court can review an on-going appeal con­cern­ing pos­si­ble anti-Native American bias in his case. Mitchell, who was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on December 11, 2019, is a mem­ber of the Navajo Nation and the only Native American on fed­er­al death row. His case is one of…