Publications & Testimony

Retiring Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge and for­mer pros­e­cu­tor Elsa Alcala now believes that the death penal­ty is unre­li­ably and dis­crim­i­na­to­ri­ly applied in the nation’s most aggres­sive cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment state. In a new Houston Chronicle ​“Behind the Walls” pod­cast, Judge Alcala – who calls her­self ​“a Republican hang­ing on by a thread” – told reporter Keri Blakinger, ​“I think we know enough right now to even call for a…

Executions have soared in Saudi Arabia amid widen­ing pur­suit of polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed death sen­tences, mass death penal­ty tri­als, and use of the death penal­ty against female activists, accord­ing to a European-based Saudi human rights orga­ni­za­tion. In its 2018 Death Penalty Report: Saudi Arabia’s False Promise, issued January 16, 2019, the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights (ESOHR) said Saudi Arabia con­duct­ed at least 149 exe­cu­tions in 2018,…

The U.S. Supreme Court has reversed a Kentucky state court rul­ing that would have per­mit­ted the Commonwealth to exe­cute death-row pris­on­er Larry Lamont White (pic­tured) with­out an evi­den­tiary hear­ing on his claim that he is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled. In a one-para­graph order issued on January 15, 2019, the Court grant­ed White’s peti­tion for review, vacat­ed the Kentucky Supreme Court​’s denial of his death-penal­ty appeal, and direct­ed the state…

On January 11, 2019, the Florida Clemency Board unan­i­mous­ly grant­ed posthu­mous par­dons to the ​“Groveland Four,” four young African-American men false­ly accused of rap­ing a young white woman in Lake County, Florida in 1949. During the racist hys­te­ria fol­low­ing the accu­sa­tion, white mobs burned down black res­i­dences, a mas­sive white posse lynched a black sus­pect, all-white juries con­demned two inno­cent men to death and an…

[UPDATE: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay of exe­cu­tion to Blaine Milam on January 14, 2019] As Texas pre­pares to exe­cute Blaine Milam (pic­tured) on January 15, 2019, Milam’s lawyers say his con­vic­tion and sen­tence rest on dis­cred­it­ed bite-mark tes­ti­mo­ny and have asked for the exe­cu­tion to be…

The already chaot­ic Guantánamo death-penal­ty tri­al of Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, accused of orches­trat­ing the October 2000 attack on the U.S. Navy destroy­er USS Cole, hit anoth­er snag as the most recent judge assigned to pre­side over the con­tro­ver­sial pro­ceed­ings will be leav­ing the mil­i­tary and quit­ting the case. In a January 4, 2019 appel­late plead­ing recent­ly obtained by the McClatchy News Service, pros­e­cu­tors advised the U.S. Court of…

Over a sharp dis­sent by three jus­tices, the United States Supreme Court has let stand the death sen­tence imposed on a Georgia pris­on­er who was suf­fer­ing from demen­tia, brain dam­age, and bor­der­line intel­lec­tu­al func­tion­ing, but whose tri­al lawyer failed to present any mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence. On January 7, 2019, the Supreme Court denied the peti­tion for writ of cer­tio­rari filed on behalf of death-row pris­on­er Donnie Cleveland Lance seeking the…

The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the Virginia Supreme Court to address a claim brought by for­mer death-row pris­on­er Justin Wolfe (pic­tured) that pros­e­cu­tors had engaged in uncon­sti­tu­tion­al vin­dic­tive pros­e­cu­tion against him after fed­er­al courts had found that his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence had been obtained through egre­gious pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct. The Virginia Supreme Court had ruled that Wolfe’s guilty plea to the enhanced charges…

Nevada death-row pris­on­er Scott Dozier (pic­tured), who unsuc­cess­ful­ly tried to force the state to exe­cute him, was found dead in his prison cell on January 5, 2019 of an appar­ent sui­cide. News reports indi­cat­ed that Dozier had hanged him­self. Dozier had told the court and sev­er­al reporters that he would rather die than spend life in prison and had attempt­ed to speed up his exe­cu­tion by drop­ping his appeals. However, his pri­or sui­cide attempt raised questions…

As he pre­pared for retire­ment, the long-time direc­tor of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said he does not sup­port the death penal­ty and believes the pun­ish­ment is on its way out in Georgia and across the coun­try. In a tele­vi­sion inter­view on his final day of work as GBI direc­tor, Vernon Keenan (pic­tured) told WXIA-TV, Atlanta’s NBC tele­vi­sion affil­i­ate, that he has ​“nev­er believed in the death penal­ty” and “[t]he day will come when we won’t have the…