Publications & Testimony

A Tennessee death-row pris­on­er who is fac­ing exe­cu­tion in ear­ly December is seek­ing to reverse his 1992 con­vic­tion and death sen­tence in light of new infor­ma­tion that a juror who served on his case failed to dis­close that she was…

NEWS — November 24: Six states set a total of 8 exe­cu­tion dates for November 2019. Three death war­rants were car­ried out — Charles Rhines (South Dakota), Justen Hall (Texas), and Ray Cromartie (Georgia); 4 war­rants were stayed; and one exe­cu­tion was halt­ed by reprieve. Through November 24, 11 states and the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment have sched­uled 65 exe­cu­tion dates for 2019. There have been 20 exe­cu­tions, with four poten­tial exe­cu­tions still pend­ing. The map…

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed the exe­cu­tion of Rodney Reed (pic­tured) on November 15, 2019, direct­ing the Bastrop County dis­trict court to review Reed’s claims that pros­e­cu­tors sup­pressed excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence and pre­sent­ed false tes­ti­mo­ny and that he is actu­al­ly inno­cent. The court’s action cul­mi­nat­ed a whirl­wind of activ­i­ty on the Friday pre­ced­ing Reed’s sched­uled November 20 exe­cu­tion. Earlier in the after­noon, the…

Reform pros­e­cu­tors made fur­ther inroads into the admin­is­tra­tion of American law enforce­ment, sweep­ing coun­ty elec­tions in Northern Virginia and gain­ing con­trol of prosecutor’s offices in Pennsylvania and California. Progressive pros­e­cu­tors rode a blue wave of sub­ur­ban votes on November 5, 2019 that solid­i­fied Democratic con­trol of every state leg­isla­tive and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al seat in the Northern Virginia coun­ties bor­der­ing the nation’s cap­i­tal and wrested…

Hundreds of for­mer state and fed­er­al judges, pros­e­cu­tors, law enforce­ment and cor­rec­tions offi­cials, and fam­i­ly mem­bers of homi­cide vic­tims have signed on to a series of let­ters urg­ing the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to halt the five fed­er­al exe­cu­tions sched­uled for December 2019 and January 2020. In four sep­a­rate let­ters addressed to President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr, 175 fam­i­ly mem­bers of mur­der vic­tims, 65 for­mer state and federal judges,…

At least 166 wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed death-row pris­on­ers have been exon­er­at­ed since the death penal­ty was rein­sti­tut­ed in the United States in 1973. That num­ber, how­ev­er, may only scratch the sur­face in assess­ing the degree to which inno­cent men and women are being sent to…

A fed­er­al dis­trict court has grant­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion to a Buddhist death-row pris­on­er in Texas over alle­ga­tions that the state is dis­crim­i­na­to­ri­ly deny­ing him access to reli­gious ser­vices that would be avail­able to Christian pris­on­ers on the day of their exe­cu­tion. On November 7, 2019, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas stayed the November 13 exe­cu­tion of Patrick Murphy (pic­tured), marking the…

NEWS — November 13: A Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), Ohio judge has imposed a death sen­tence on Matthew Nicholson for the mur­ders of his girl­friend’s teenage chil­dren. It was the third death sen­tence imposed in Cuyahoga County in 2019, more than in any oth­er coun­ty in the coun­try. Cuyahoga County also imposed two death sen­tences in 2018, mak­ing it the only coun­ty to impose more than one death sen­tence in both of the last two years. The five death sen­tences in that…

On March 16, 2017, say­ing that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is​“not in the best inter­ests of this com­mu­ni­ty or in the best inter­ests of jus­tice,” Orange/​Osceola County (FL) state pros­e­cu­tor Aramis Ayala announced that her office would not pur­sue the death penal­ty in any case. That deci­sion, announced in con­nec­tion with the pros­e­cu­tion of a man charged with killing his ex-girl­friend, her unborn child, and a police offi­cer respond­ing to the…

Texas exe­cut­ed Justen Hall (pic­tured) on November 6, 2019 in the sec­ond Texas case of the year to present sig­nif­i­cant ques­tions as to a prisoner’s competency…