Publications & Testimony

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…

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…

The num­ber of peo­ple on death row across the United States or fac­ing poten­tial cap­i­tal resen­tenc­ings declined by near­ly 20% in the 2010s, accord­ing to a Death Penalty Information Center analy­sis of data from the lat­est quar­ter­ly death-row cen­sus by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational…

Former Florida death-row pris­on­er Timothy Hurst (pic­tured), whose case led the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down Florida’s death-penal­­ty statute in 2016 and spurred the elim­i­na­tion of non-unan­i­­mous jury ver­dicts for death in Florida and Delaware, has been resen­tenced to life with­out parole. Hurst was offi­cial­ly removed from Florida’s death row after his cap­i­tal resen­tenc­ing jury did not reach a unanimous sentencing…

NEWS (3/​11/​20): The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has reject­ed the rec­om­men­da­tion of an El Paso County tri­al court that death-row pris­on­er Rigoberto Avila should be grant­ed a new tri­al as a result of the prosecution’s reliance on false and outdated scientific…

Paul Hildwin, whose death sen­tence was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1989 in a deci­sion it over­ruled 26 years lat­er, has been released from prison in Florida after spend­ing near­ly 34 years incar­cer­at­ed for a mur­der DNA evi­dence now shows he…

NEWS (3/​10/​20): A Utah fed­er­al dis­trict court has grant­ed a new tri­al to death-row pris­on­er Von Taylor based on defense counsel’s inef­fec­tive­ness in fail­ing to inves­ti­gate the facts before advis­ing him whether to plead guilty. Taylor pled guilty to a dou­ble mur­der and was sen­tenced to death based upon the mis­tak­en belief that he had killed the two vic­tims. Because of counsel’s failure…

Saying that states have​“no com­pelling need” to keep exe­cu­tion infor­ma­tion secret, the American Bar Association (ABA) has asked the Idaho Supreme Court to require the state to dis­close numer­ous exe­cu­­tion-relat­ed doc­u­ments under Idaho’s free­dom of infor­ma­tion law. On February 28, 2020, the ABA and a coali­tion of Idaho media orga­ni­za­tions led by the Idaho Press Club filed ami­cus curi­ae briefs in Cover v. Idaho Board of Correction…

NEWS (3/​13) — North Carolina: The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission vot­ed 5 – 3 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…

Washington — A bill that would for­mal­ly remove Washington’s judi­cial­ly abol­ished death penal­ty from the state’s statute books has failed. SB 5339, which passed the state sen­ate on January 31 and was approved by the House Committee on Public Safety on February 27, did not come up for a vote on the floor of the state House of Representatives by the March 7 dead­line for con­sid­er­a­tion dur­ing the 2020 leg­isla­tive ses­sion. The fail­ure has no effect on the judicial…