Publications & Testimony

Official misconduct and perjury or false accusation continue to be the main reasons innocent men and women are wrongfully convicted in America, according to the 2019 annual report by the National Registry of Exonerations. That misconduct, the report indicates, is most prevalent in cases involving the most serious criminal charges. The registry reported on March 31, 2020 that 143 men and women were exonerated in 2019 following wrongful convictions across the United States. More than half (76)…

Pakistan (4/​3/​20) — The Sindh High Court, the highest court of the Pakistani province of Sindh, has overturned the conviction and death sentence of al-Qaeda leader Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh for the graphic murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi, Pakistan in 2002. The court upheld Sheikh’s conviction for kidnapping, reduced his sentence to seven years in prison, and released him on time served. The court acquitted three others of the murder charges and released them. Fahad…

Courts are failing badly in keeping junk psychological science out of the courtroom in criminal cases, permitting the admission of psychological tests that have never been reviewed for reliability and others that have been found unreliable, a recent study reports. Among the problematic tests, another group of psychologists write, is a ​“psychopathy checklist” commonly used by prosecutors to argue that a defendant poses a future danger to society and should be sentenced to death. The article…

After ignoring health risks posed by lengthy court proceedings during the coronavirus pandemic and facing criticism that a capital prosecution following the state’s abolition of capital punishment would amount to a politically partisan waste of taxpayer dollars, prosecutors in Adams County, Colorado have announced that they will drop the death penalty in a high-profile case involving the killing of a sheriff’s deputy. On March 30, 2020, 17^th Judicial District Attorney Dave Young filed papers…

Nebraska (4/​3/​20) — In a state post-conviction appeal, the Nebraska Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the state’s capital sentencing process filed by death-row prisoner Jeffrey Hessler. Hessler argued that Nebraska’s three-judge sentencing proceedings violated his Sixth Amendment right to have a jury determine all facts necessary for a death sentence to be imposed. The court ruled that Hessler’s argument was untimely and therefore procedurally barred, and added that under the recent U.S.

NEWS (4/​1/​20) — Texas: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has granted a 60-day stay of execution to Fabian Hernandez, the third stay of execution it has granted during the coronavirus State of Disaster declared by Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Although the court’s order doesn’t specify a reason for the stay, Hernandez’s counsel filed a motion seeking to delay his execution based on ​“the current health crisis, the enormous resources needed to address the emergency,” and counsel’s inability to…

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has once again rejected the findings of a trial court that a death-row prisoner was entitled to relief from his conviction or death sentence. Applying a narrow interpretation of a 2013 junk-science law, the court on March 11, 2020 set aside the recommendation of an El Paso County trial court that death-row prisoner Rigoberto Avila should be granted a new trial as a result of the prosecution’s reliance on false and outdated scientific evidence. The…

After receiving unanimous support in the Florida House of Representatives, a bill that would have expanded access to postconviction DNA testing failed in the Florida Senate when the legislative body adjourned its 2020 legislative session without taking up the bill. Introduced by State Representative Jamie Grant (pictured, R – Tampa) on February 5, 2020, CS/​HB 7077 sailed through the House of Representatives with ease, passing the House Appropriations Committee on February 18 by a vote of 27 – 0…

The public health crisis from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has halted executions in the United States and, legal experts say, is likely to continue to do for the foreseeable future. With nine of the eleven serious death warrants between March 15 and June 30, 2020 scheduled in Texas, the decisions by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) to issue 60-day stays for the two prisoners with March execution dates suggests that other stays are likely to follow. Citing ​“the current health…

NEWS (3/​27/​20): California — A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (pictured) has affirmed a California federal district court’s denial of habeas corpus relief for death-row prisoner Rodney Berryman, Sr. The court ruled that jurists of reason could disagree with the district court’s rejection of Berryman’s claim that his trial lawyer was ineffective for failing to investigate and present mental health evidence that the killing was not premeditated or…