Publications & Testimony

Virginia’s death row shrank to just two prisoners on March 12 as recently elected Fairfax County, Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve T. Descano agreed to a deal to resentence former death-row prisoner Mark Lawlor (pictured) to life without parole. Lawlor was sentenced to death in 2011 for the murder of Genevieve Orange. No one has been sentenced to death in Virginia since. A federal appeals court overturned Lawlor’s death sentence in 2018, holding that the trial judge had…

Responding to escalating health concerns caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has temporarily halted the execution of John Hummel. In an order issued on March 16, 2020, the TCCA stayed Hummel’s execution, which had been scheduled for March 18, for 60 days, saying the delay was necessary “in light of the current health crisis and the enormous resources needed to address that emergency.” Hummel’s attorney had asked for the stay, arguing that the…

More than forty years after he was convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white Columbus, Georgia jury for the rape and murder of a 19-year-old white woman, Johnny Lee Gates (pictured) will be getting a new trial. On March 13, 2020, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously held that DNA contained on physical evidence that police and prosecutors had withheld for decades raised “significant doubt” as to Gates’ guilt. The court’s 9 – 0 decision rejected an appeal by state prosecutors of a January…

Colorado — The Colorado legislature on March 13 transmitted to the governor SB 20 – 100, which would repeal the state’s death penalty. Governor Jared Polis now has ten days in which to sign or veto the bill or allow it to become law without his signature. Alabama — The Alabama House Judiciary Committee on March 12 amended, approved, and referred to the full House a bill that would eliminate one level of state-court appeals in death penalty cases. As introduced, HB 275 would have vested exclusive…

Capital sentencing schemes that permit judges to impose a death sentence despite the votes of one or more jurors for life create a heightened risk that an innocent person will be wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death, according to a new Death Penalty Information Center analysis of death-row exoneration data. DPIC found that one or more jurors had voted for life in more than 90% of the death-row exonerations in states that permitted judges to impose death sentences based on a jury’s…

NEWS (3/13/20): The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission voted 5 – 3 on March 13, 2020 to empanel a three-judge review committee to determine whether four men convicted as teens should be exonerated of the murder of NBA star Chris Paul’s grandfather, Nathaniel Jones. A fifth teen convicted in the murder died before he could submit his case for review by the Commission. Nathaniel Cauthen and his younger brother, Rayshawn Banner were charged and convicted of first-degree murder and…

NEWS (3/12/20): The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled on March 12, 2020 that death-row prisoner Jerry Lard, who lawyers say is intellectually disabled, may waive his post-conviction appeals. Lard’s initial post-conviction lawyer was permitted to withdraw from the case citing “irreparable harm” to the attorney-client relationship after he had presented evidence that Lard was intellectually disabled. The court appointed new counsel to represent Lard, who then asked the trial court to withdraw his…

NEWS (3/12/20): The Florida Supreme Court on March 12, 2020 denied death-row prisoner Hector Sanchez-Torres’s post-conviction challenge to his conviction and death sentence for a 2008 armed robbery and murder. In an unsigned opinion, the court ruled that Sanchez-Torres’s counsel had not been ineffective in advising him to plead guilty to the charges and to waive a sentencing jury based on counsel’s belief that “a Clay County jury would absolutely convict [him] of first-degree murder and give…

NEWS (3/12/20): Citing a 14-year delay by federal prosecutors in bringing the case to trial, a federal district court in Texas has dismissed a federal capital murder indictment against a Salvadoran man charged with killing two Honduran immigrants. The indictment alleges that the two victims were being held for ransom by a human-smuggling operation and that Wilmar Rene Gomez-Duran had tortured and murdered them after they tried to escape. Senior Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt (pictured) of the United…

The number of people on death row across the United States or facing potential capital resentencings declined by nearly 20% in the 2010s, according to a Death Penalty Information Center analysis of data from the latest quarterly death-row census by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). The Winter 2020 edition of Death Row USA (DRUSA), released in March 2020, reports that 2,620 people were on death row as of January 1, 2020, down 2.6% from the 2,690 LDF reported in January 1…