Publications & Testimony

At the mid­point of 2019, death sen­tences and exe­cu­tions remain near his­toric lows in the United States, with exe­cu­tions and pend­ing exe­cu­tion dates con­cen­trat­ed heav­i­ly in a few south­ern states. The year’s exe­cu­tions and new death sen­tences have dis­pro­por­tion­al­ly involved defen­dants or pris­on­ers with men­tal ill­ness, brain dam­age, and/​or severe child­hood trau­ma, and those with inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion. New Hampshire became the 21^st state to abol­ish the death penal­ty, and California’s governor…

NEWS: July 6—Pennsylvania has joined the list of states that have not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in more than 20 years. Five death-penal­ty states (Colorado, Kansas, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming) and the U.S. mil­i­tary now have not con­duct­ed an exe­cu­tion in at least two decades. More than half of the states in the U.S. (26), as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. mil­i­tary either do not have the death penal­ty or have not executed…

In the midst of National Pride Month com­mem­o­rat­ing the 50^th anniver­sary of the Stonewall Riots and the birth of the mod­ern LGBTQ rights move­ment, South Dakota has issued a death war­rant seek­ing to exe­cute a gay man whose death sen­tence was taint­ed by anti-gay bias. Charles Rhines (pic­tured) was sen­tenced to death by a jury that, accord­ing to juror affi­davits, was influ­enced by big­ot­ed stereo­types in reach­ing its deci­sion. On June 25, 2019, in response to a…

The Texas State Comptroller has denied com­pen­sa­tion to death-row exoneree Alfred Dewayne Brown (pic­tured), despite a for­mal court dec­la­ra­tion that he is ​“actu­al­ly inno­cent” of the mur­ders of a store clerk and a Houston police offi­cer that sent him to death row in 2005. Claiming uncer­tain­ty as to whether a Harris County judge had juris­dic­tion to declare Brown inno­cent of the mur­ders, comp­trol­ler Glenn Hegar on June 26, 2019…

In July 1976, false foren­sic tes­ti­mo­ny and an eye­wit­ness iden­ti­fi­ca­tion manip­u­lat­ed by police mis­con­duct sent Charles Ray Finch to North Carolina​’s death row. Forty-three years lat­er, he has become the 166^th per­son in the United States since 1973 to be exon­er­at­ed after hav­ing been wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. On June 14, 2019, after a fed­er­al appeals court said Finch had proven his ​“actu­al inno­cence” and a fed­er­al dis­trict court had giv­en the…

The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the unseal­ing of court doc­u­ments relat­ed to Alabama​’s May 30, 2019 exe­cu­tion of Christopher Price. On June 24, the Court grant­ed a motion filed by National Public Radio (NPR) and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP), to unseal all Supreme Court plead­ings in the case of Price v. Dunn, in which — based on redact­ed fil­ings — the Court per­mit­ted Price’s exe­cu­tion to…

When Georgia exe­cut­ed Marion Wilson, Jr., on June 20, 2019, it marked the 1500^th exe­cu­tion in the United States since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all death-penal­ty statutes in Furman v. Georgia in 1972, then four years lat­er per­mit­ted exe­cu­tions to go for­ward under new statutes osten­si­bly enact­ed to address the uncon­sti­tu­tion­al arbi­trari­ness that had plagued the old laws. His exe­cu­tion, ana­lysts say, reflects a num­ber of…

NEWS: JUNE 28—The New Mexico Supreme Court has over­turned the death sen­tences of the two pris­on­ers who had remained on the state’s death row after the leg­is­la­ture repealed the state’s death-penal­ty statute in 2009. In 3 – 2 deci­sions in Fry v. Lopez and Allen v. Lemaster, the court found that the death sen­tences imposed on Robert Fry and Timothy Allen were dis­pro­por­tion­ate to ​“oth­er equal­ly hor­ren­dous cas­es in…

Finding that a Mississippi pros­e­cu­tor had inten­tion­al­ly struck black jurors in an attempt to empan­el as white a jury as pos­si­ble, the United States Supreme Court has over­turned the con­vic­tion of death-row pris­on­er Curtis Giovanni Flowers. The Court’s 7 – 2 deci­sion on June 21, 2019, found that Mississippi’s Fifth Circuit Court District Attorney Doug Evans had under­tak­en extra­or­di­nary efforts to pre­vent African Americans from serv­ing as jurors…

In a 7 – 2 deci­sion, the Supreme Court over­turned the con­vic­tion of Curtis Giovanni Flowers, a Mississippi death row pris­on­er who has been tried six times for a noto­ri­ous 1996 quadru­ple mur­der in Winona, Mississippi. Three of the first five tri­als end­ed in con­vic­tions that were over­turned on appeal and two tri­als result­ed in hung juries. The lead pros­e­cu­tor for all six tri­als was Doug Evans, the District Attorney in Mississippi’s Fifth…