Publications & Testimony

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…

NEWS (2/​19/​20): Dana Cook has been named National Mitigation Coordinator for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts’ National Habeas Assistance and Training Counsel Project. Cook has more than two decades of expe­ri­ence in cap­i­tal defend­er offices in Pennsylvania and Tennessee work­ing as a mit­i­ga­tion spe­cial­ist at the tri­al and post-con­vic­­tion stages of death-penal­­ty cas­es and in train­ing lawyers and inves­ti­ga­tors in prepar­ing and presenting…

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has announced plans to allow some of the state’s death-sen­­tenced pris­on­ers to move from San Quentin’s death row to oth­er state pris­ons that offer work and oth­er reha­bil­i­ta­tive pro­grams. In what has been billed a​“pilot pro­gram,” the eli­gi­ble pris­on­ers will be able to trans­fer to one of eight less cost­ly high-secu­ri­­ty pris­ons that pro­vide reha­bil­i­ta­tive ser­vices. The death-sentenced…

Tennessee has sched­uled three upcom­ing exe­cu­tions, despite ongo­ing lit­i­ga­tion sur­round­ing the use of its lethal injec­tion pro­to­col and prob­lems with its lethal-injec­­tion drugs that have led five pris­on­ers to opt for death by elec­tro­cu­tion. Attorneys for five oth­er death-row pris­on­ers, includ­ing Oscar Smith, who has an exe­cu­tion date of June 4, 2020, have filed a fed­er­al suit pre­sent­ing new evi­dence chal­leng­ing the state’s…

DNA exon­er­at­ed Ryan Matthews in 2004, after he had spent five years on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola for a mur­der he did not com­mit. In December 2019, he received his col­lege degree.​“I’m so used to obsta­cles get­ting in my way,” Matthews, told Nola​.com.​“But that won’t stop me. When one door shuts, I work to get another…