Publications & Testimony

A fed­er­al appeals court has declared that Virginia for many years housed its death-row pris­on­ers in uncon­sti­tu­tion­al con­di­tions and has barred the state from revert­ing to its pri­or prac­tices. On May 3, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that the Commonwealth’s for­mer pol­i­cy of 23- or 24-hour per day soli­tary con­fine­ment of death-row pris­on­ers con­sti­tut­ed cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment in vio­la­tion of the Eighth Amendment. The 2 – 1 deci­sion upheld a rul­ing by the U.S.

A two-week fed­er­al tri­al on the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Arkansas​’s lethal-injec­tion pro­to­col came to a close May 2, 2019, as the par­ties pre­sent­ed legal argu­ments to the court after eight days of tes­ti­mo­ny. U.S. District Judge Kristine G. Baker must now deter­mine whether the state’s three-drug pro­to­col begin­ning with the seda­tive mida­zo­lam is allow­able. Lawyers rep­re­sent­ing a group of death-row pris­on­ers pre­sent­ed tes­ti­mo­ny from wit­ness­es of recent exe­cu­tions, as well as medical…

Sometimes you need a joke about a cute but very angry desert rain frog to pre­pare an unsus­pect­ing audi­ence for a seri­ous dis­cus­sion of lethal-injec­tion exe­cu­tions in the United States. That was the approach under­tak­en by Last Week Tonight, the satir­i­cal week­ly HBO com­e­dy-news show host­ed by John Oliver, as Oliver addressed the dead­ly seri­ous issue of lethal injec­tion in the show’s May 5, 2019 episode. Oliver called the death penal­ty ​“a wrong, bad…

A Texas tri­al court judge has for­mal­ly declared Alfred Dewayne Brown (pic­tured) ​“actu­al­ly inno­cent” of the mur­der charges that led to his wrong­ful con­vic­tion and death sen­tence in 2005. The order, issued on May 3, 2019 by Harris County District Court Judge George Powell, paves the way for Brown to receive com­pen­sa­tion from the state for the ten years he was wrong­ful­ly incar­cer­at­ed on death row for the killing of a Houston police…

For the sec­ond time in as many years, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (pic­tured, left) has vetoed a bill to repeal the state’s death penal­ty. Sununu’s action on May 3, 2019 sets the stage for an antic­i­pat­ed attempt lat­er in the leg­isla­tive ses­sion to over­ride the Governor’s veto. A two-thirds vote in each house is required to…

Tennessee exe­cut­ed Sedley Alley in 2006 for the bru­tal rape and mur­der of Marine Lance Corporal Suzanne Collins, after hav­ing denied him DNA test­ing that his lawyers believed could have estab­lished his inno­cence. Now, after new evi­dence sug­gests that anoth­er man may have com­mit­ted the mur­der, the Innocence Project has filed a peti­tion in Shelby County (Memphis) Criminal Court on behalf of Alley’s estate renew­ing Alley’s…

Christian church lead­ers from Catholic and Protestant denom­i­na­tions across Louisiana have called upon state law­mak­ers to pass leg­is­la­tion to end the death penal­ty in the Bayou State. On April 25, 2019, the Louisiana Interchurch Conference and two dozen faith rep­re­sen­ta­tives held a press con­fer­ence on the steps of the state capi­tol in Baton Rouge advo­cat­ing for leg­is­la­tion to abol­ish the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment law and pledg­ing their sup­port for as long as it takes for abo­li­tion efforts to…

A fed­er­al dis­trict court has over­turned the con­vic­tion of Genesis Hill (pic­tured), who was sen­tenced to death in Ohio in 1991 for the death of his six-month-old daugh­ter, Domika, based upon a ques­tion­able shak­en-baby diag­no­sis. On April 24, 2019, Chief Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio found that Ohio pros­e­cu­tors had uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly with­held excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence that called into question the…

One month into California’s mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions, the his­toric action by Governor Gavin Newsom (pic­tured) is draw­ing high praise from exonerees, mixed reviews from vic­tims’ fam­i­lies, and unusu­al­ly per­son­al con­dem­na­tion from political…

Arguing that a brain-dam­aged woman fac­ing the death penal­ty for the starv­ing death of her young daugh­ter ​“was inca­pable of rep­re­sent­ing her­self,” lawyers from the Georgia Office of the Capital Defender have asked that they be reap­point­ed as her coun­sel if the case advances to the penal­ty-phase of her tri­al for life or…