Publications & Testimony

As state leg­is­la­tures in Ohio and Washington con­tem­plate the future of their death-penal­­ty statutes, major news­pa­pers in each of the states are advocating legislative…

NEWS (2/​12/​20): On February 12, 2020, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals over­turned the death sen­tence imposed on Charles Brownlow, Jr. in Kaufman County in April 2016. The appeals court ruled that Brownlow’s jury had been pre­vent­ed from prop­er­ly eval­u­at­ing his claim of intellectual…

Andre Thomas (pic­tured) is a Texas death-row pris­on­er riv­en with schiz­o­phre­nia so severe that, in sep­a­rate inci­dents, he gouged out both of his eyes and ate one of them. The U.S. Court of Appeals heard oral argu­ment on February 5, 2020, about whether his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence should be over­turned because his lawyers failed to present evi­dence that he was incom­pe­tent to be tried, failed to present mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence of Thomas’…

NEWS (2/​11/​20): The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania has stayed the exe­cu­tion of Jordan Clemons, which had been sched­uled for March 13, 2020. As required by a law enact­ed by the Pennsylvania leg­is­la­ture in 1995, Clemons was the sub­ject of a legal­ly pre­ma­ture exe­cu­tion date, even though he had not yet had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to appeal his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence in state or fed­er­al post-con­vic­­tion pro­ceed­ings and was…

Why is the death penal­ty pur­sued and imposed in some cas­es and not in oth­ers that, at first glance, seem facial­ly indis­tin­guish­able? Surveying the aca­d­e­m­ic lit­er­a­ture, Daniel Medwed, the University Distinguished Professor of Law and Criminal Justice at Northeastern University School of Law, points to one of the fac­tors that​“seeps into charg­ing and sen­tenc­ing deci­sions in mean­ing­ful and dis­turb­ing ways“ — race: first, the race of the vic­tim and then…

NEWS (2/​10/​20): Jurors reached penal­­ty-phase ver­dicts in four cas­es dur­ing the week of February 4 – 10, 2020, return­ing three life ver­dicts and one…

The last three men sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in Georgia said they did not com­mit the killing and that DNA test­ing that was not avail­able at the time of tri­al could prove it. In two of the cas­es, vic­tim fam­i­ly mem­bers sup­port­ed the request for test­ing. Prosecutors opposed the requests, and the courts refused to allow the test­ing. Two of the three men were exe­cut­ed, with doubts still swirling as…

Three groups, rep­re­sent­ing pros­e­cu­tors, the Catholic Church, and polit­i­cal con­ser­v­a­tives, have filed briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court sup­port­ing the efforts of Florida death-row pris­on­er James Dailey (pic­tured) to obtain judi­cial review of his inno­cence claim. Dailey filed a peti­tion for cer­tio­rari on January 10, 2020 ask­ing the Supreme Court to hear his case, after the Florida courts refused to con­sid­er evi­dence that anoth­er man had confessed…

NEWS (2/​6/​20): Texas exe­cut­ed Abel Ochoa on February 6, 2020. Ochoa unsuc­cess­ful­ly sought clemen­cy on the grounds that he had shown great remorse for his crime and been reha­bil­i­tat­ed. Ochoa had sought a stay of exe­cu­tion alleg­ing that Texas uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly inter­fered in the clemen­cy pro­ceed­ings in his case by pre­vent­ing him from sub­mit­ting evi­dence in sup­port of his clemen­cy appli­ca­tion. Although Texas rou­tine­ly per­mits mem­bers of the…

NEWS (2/​6/​20): Sonny Boy Oats will come off Florida’s death row after 39 years, pros­e­cu­tors announced on February 6. Oats was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in Marion County in 1981. His lawyers have argued that exe­cut­ing Oats would be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al because he is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled. With eight of nine psy­chi­a­trists and psy­chol­o­gists who eval­u­at­ed Oats con­clud­ing that he is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled, State Attorney Ric Ridgway told…