Publications & Testimony

The state of Tennessee executed Lee Hall (pictured) on December 5, 2019, without providing him judicial review of a legal claim that led the state’s courts to overturn the conviction of a former death-row prisoner just weeks before. Citing what he characterized as ​“extensive” judicial review spanning ​“the course of almost 30 years,” Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced on December 4 that he had denied clemency to Hall, who became blind during his time on death row. That review, Governor Lee…

Lawyers for federal death-row prisoner Wesley Purkey, who is scheduled to be executed on December 13, 2019, say he is incompetent to be executed because he has Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and traumatic brain injuries that ​“render him unable to rationally understand the reason the United States seeks to execute him.” Purkey’s complaint, filed November 26, 2019 in federal district court in Washington, catalogues a lifelong history of trauma and mental illness that have contributed to his…

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked the United States Supreme Court to lift a federal district court injunction that is currently blocking the government from carrying out four scheduled executions. The federal prosecutors’ December 2, 2019 filing came within hours of a ruling by a unanimous federal appeals panel in Washington that had refused to vacate the injunction. The first of the federal executions is scheduled for 8:00 a.m. (Eastern time) on Monday, December 9. On July 25…

Saying that ​“Virginia’s death penalty fails victims’ families,” 13 family members of Virginia homicide victims — including the daughter of a sheriff’s deputy whose assailant was executed — have called on Virginia legislators to abolish capital punishment. The letter, released by the advocacy organization Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty on November 21, 2019, calls Virginia’s death penalty system ​“inefficient and ineffective.” ​“Our direct experiences with the criminal justice system…

In 1993, James Erin McKinney was convicted of two murders committed during the course of separate burglaries. Sentenced under judge-only penalty procedures that were later declared unconstitutional, McKinney’s case for life included the presentation of mitigating evidence of chronic, severe childhood abuse and neglect that left McKinney suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The sentencing judge found McKinney’s childhood to be so horrific that it was ​“beyond the comprehension of…

DPIC Analysis: With the U.S. Supreme Court’s February 6 ruling denying the Department of Justice’s application to vacate the federal-execution injunctions, more death warrants will have been blocked by stays of execution or judicial injunctions in 2019 than will have been carried out. As of December 8, DPIC was aware of 65 death warrants issued by 11 states and the federal government that scheduled execution dates for 2019. Courts have stayed or enjoined 24 of those warrants, while 21…

In a departure from its prior editorial stand, the Orlando Sentinel published an editorial on November 22, 2019 calling for Florida to abolish the death penalty. Describing the state’s capital-punishment system as a ​“hopeless quagmire of inequities,” the Sentinel said “[t]oo many questions cannot be adequately answered for us to continue supporting the death penalty, and for Florida to continue administering it.” The Sentinel editorial board had previously raised concerns about specific…

Popular culture has the potential to change social attitudes, and actors in two eagerly anticipated movies focusing on the death penalty are hoping that their films will do just that. In recent interviews about their roles in the dramas Just Mercy and Clemency, actors Jamie Foxx, Alfre Woodard, and Aldis Hodge discuss how those films inspired them to open up about their past and affected their views on capital punishment. Just Mercy became highly personal for Foxx (pictured right, with Just…

For the first time since Gallup began asking the question in 1985, a majority of Americans now say life imprisonment is a better approach for punishing murder than is the death penalty. According to the 2019 Gallup death-penalty poll (click here to enlarge graphic), 60% percent of Americans asked to choose whether the death penalty or life without possibility of parole ​“is the better penalty for murder” chose the life-sentencing option. 36% favored the death penalty. The response reflects a…

NEWS — November 29: The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has affirmed a federal district court ruling granting Arizona death-row prisoner Barry Lee Jones a new trial based on his trial lawyer’s failure to investigate and present evidence that he is innocent. Jones had been convicted of sexual assault, three counts of child abuse, and felony murder in connection with the death of a four-year-old girl, Rachel Gold. The court found that, as a result of Jones’s trial lawyer’s…