Publications & Testimony

A divid­ed U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that James McKinney (pic­tured), an Arizona death-row pris­on­er who was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly sen­tenced to death by a tri­al judge who did not con­sid­er mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence relat­ing to his severe Posttraumatic Stress Disorder from relent­less child­hood abuse, is not enti­tled to a jury tri­al to deter­mine his sen­tence. On February 25, 2020, in a 5 – 4 opin­ion authored by Justice Brett…

NEWS (2/​26/​20): The Colorado leg­is­la­ture has sent to the Governor a bill that would prospec­tive­ly abol­ish the state’s death penal­ty. On February 26, 2020, one day after a marathon 12-hour debate on the floor of the House, the Colorado House of Representatives vot­ed 38 – 27 to pass SB 20 – 100 to repeal the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statute. The Senate had pre­vi­ous­ly approved the legislation…

Tennessee has set two more exe­cu­tion dates for 2020, direct­ed, advo­cates say, at men whose cas­es present unre­solved issues of inno­cence, intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty, and…

Vernon Madison, an Alabama death-row pris­on­er whose severe demen­tia led to a major Supreme Court deci­sion on com­pe­ten­cy to be exe­cut­ed, has died in prison at the…

Nine years after an American Bar Association (ABA) study iden­ti­fied sys­temic defi­cien­cies in Kentucky’s admin­is­tra­tion of its death-penal­­ty laws, a new report by past and cur­rent Kentucky pub­lic defend­ers charges that the Commonwealth’s fail­ure to take any mean­ing­ful reme­di­al action under­mines the legit­i­ma­cy of capital punishment…

NEWS (2/​24/​20): On February 24, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Texas death-row pris­on­er Rodney Reed’s peti­tion for writ of cer­tio­rari, declin­ing to review his case. Reed’s peti­tion raised the ques­tion, not yet addressed by the Court,​“Does the con­vic­tion or exe­cu­tion of a per­son who is actu­al­ly inno­cent of the crime vio­late the United States Constitution?” It also asked the Court to con­sid­er the appro­pri­ate stan­dard for low­er courts to assess:…

Colorado — The House Judiciary com­mit­tee vot­ed 6 – 3 on February 18 to approve SB 20 – 100, a bill that would prospec­tive­ly repeal the death penal­ty in Colorado. The bill, which has already passed the state sen­ate, is expect­ed to receive a vote in the full House ear­ly in the week. Governor Jared Polis has indi­cat­ed that he will sign the bill…

A Florida state court judge has grant­ed death-row pris­on­er James Dailey an evi­den­tiary hear­ing on his claim that he did not com­mit the mur­der for which he was sen­tenced to death…

NEWS (2/​20/​20): Tennessee exe­cut­ed Nicholas Sutton on February 20, 2020, one day after Governor Bill Lee denied a peti­tion for clemen­cy that had been sup­port­ed by sev­en cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers, five jurors, and mem­bers of the victims’…

Nebraska​’s uni­cam­er­al leg­is­la­ture vot­ed on February 13, 2020 to advance a bill that would increase trans­paren­cy in the state’s exe­cu­tion process. LB 238, which would allow wit­ness­es to see the exe­cu­tion from the moment the pris­on­er enters the death cham­ber until the pris­on­er is declared dead or the exe­cu­tion is halt­ed, passed an ini­tial con­sid­er­a­tion by a 33 – 7 vote. It must pass a sec­ond vote in order to be submitted…