Publications & Testimony

In February 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit over­turned the con­vic­tion and death sen­tence of Tennessee death-row pris­on­er Andrew Lee Thomas, Jr., rul­ing that Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich had uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly with­held evi­dence that a key pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness had been paid for her coop­er­a­tion in the case and then delib­er­ate­ly elicit­ed perjured testimony…

Defendants con­vict­ed of killing white vic­tims in Georgia are 17 times more like­ly to be exe­cut­ed than those con­vict­ed of mur­der­ing black vic­tims, a new study by researchers at the University of Denver has found, and the prob­lem of dis­crim­i­na­tion is wors­ened by the…

Supporters of Rodney Reed (pic­tured) are call­ing for a new tri­al for the Texas death-row pris­on­er sen­tenced to death in 1998 by an all-white jury in a racial­ly charged tri­al. On September 10, 2019, Reed’s fam­i­ly and sup­port­ers protest­ed Texas’ death penal­ty out­side the governor’s man­sion in Austin. Their plea for a new tri­al based on evi­dence of his inno­cence has been joined by a grow­ing cho­rus of sup­port­ers, which include the Innocence…

The California Supreme Court has declined to review the peti­tions of two Los Angeles County defen­dants who had asked the Court to halt cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions in the wake of Governor Gavin Newsom​’s deci­sion to impose a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. The defen­dants had argued that there was an uncon­sti­tu­tion­al risk that jurors’ knowl­edge about the much-pub­­li­­cized mora­to­ri­um would lead them to believe that any death sen­tence they might impose…

NEWS — September 19: Oregon Governor Kate Brown has announced she will not call a spe­cial ses­sion to address whether the state’s new law lim­it­ing the types of mur­ders pun­ish­able by death applies to future resen­tenc­ing pro­ceed­ings for pris­on­ers cur­rent­ly on the state’s death row. The new law, which goes into effect on September 29, is not retroac­tive and would not over­turn exist­ing death sen­tences. However, it applies to all future capital sentencing…

As the September 11, 2019 Pennsylvania Supreme Court argu­ment date approached in two cas­es chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s death penal­ty, com­men­ta­tors and stake­hold­ers weighed in on the case in op-eds across the state. These opin­ion arti­cles high­light­ed the work of a June 2018 report by the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital Punishment that found deep flaws in the admin­is­tra­tion of the Commonwealth’s death…

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court (mem­bers pic­tured) heard oral argu­ment on September 11, 2019 on whether to exer­cise its extra­or­di­nary​“King’s Bench” pow­ers to deter­mine whether the death penal­ty, as cur­rent­ly applied in the Commonwealth, vio­lates the Pennsylvania con­sti­tu­tion. If the court agrees to reach the con­sti­tu­tion­al issue, it has the pow­er to strike down the death penal­ty, uphold its con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty, or issue direc­tives or standards regarding…

Saying that​“suf­fo­ca­tion does not qual­i­fy as​‘severe pain and need­less suf­fer­ing,’” a fed­er­al appeals court in Ohio has ruled that the state’s three-drug exe­cu­tion pro­to­col does not vio­late the con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­hi­bi­tion against cruel and…

Texas exe­cut­ed Mark Soliz (pic­tured) on September 10, 2019, after a fed­er­al appeals court denied him a stay and dis­missed his claim that his life­long men­tal impair­ments result­ing from fetal alco­hol syn­drome should exempt him from exe­cu­tion. Soliz had sought a stay and to be resen­tenced to life with­out parole, argu­ing that his mother’s alco­hol con­sump­tion dur­ing her preg­nan­cy impaired his intel­lec­tu­al devel­op­ment in a manner that…

A coali­tion of nation­al and local Jewish orga­ni­za­tions and lawyers have asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to stop the sched­uled October 10, 2019 exe­cu­tion of a Jewish death-row pris­on­er to review his claim that the judge before whom he was tried was racist and anti-Semitic. Randy Halprin (pic­tured) was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in a tri­al presided over by Dallas County Judge Vickers Cunningham, who referred to…