Publications & Testimony

NEWS — September 26: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has declined to address the state con­sti­tu­tion­al chal­lenge to the Commonwealth’s death penal­ty brought by two death-row pris­on­ers. In a one-page per curi­am order, the court denied the King’s Bench peti­tions filed by Russell Cox and Kevin Marinelli, which had asked the court to exer­cise its extra­or­di­nary juris­dic­tion to hear their chal­lenge. The court ruled that…

As U.S. tax­pay­ers pick up a tab of more than $6 bil­lion and climb­ing, for­mer top offi­cials involved in the mil­i­tary com­mis­sion death-penal­­ty cas­es against Guantánamo Bay detainees have blast­ed the mil­i­tary tri­bunals for waste, mis­man­age­ment, and…

A fed­er­al appeals court has vacat­ed the death sen­tence imposed on a North Carolina death-row pris­on­er, find­ing that one of his jurors improp­er­ly con­sult­ed her pas­tor about her deci­sion and then com­mu­ni­cat­ed the pas­tor’s advice to fel­low jurors. In a 2 – 1 deci­sion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled on September 12, 2019 that William Leroy Barnes (pic­tured) had been denied his Sixth Amendment right to tri­al by an…

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…