Publications & Testimony

Lawyers for Oklahoma death-row prisoner Julius Jones (pictured) have petitioned the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board for clemency, arguing that Jones was wrongly convicted and that his trial was tainted by racial bias. The petition, filed on October 15, 2019, has drawn support from a diverse range of civic, civil rights, and faith leaders and criminal justice experts. Jones, who is black, was convicted and sentenced to death by a nearly all-white jury for the 1999 killing of a white…

The American Bar Association has urged the Nevada Supreme Court to prohibit the use of the death penalty against people who are severely mentally ill. In a friend-of-the-court brief filed October 3, 2019 in the case of death-row prisoner Siaosi Vanisi, the ABA argued that imposing the death penalty on people with severe mental illness serves no legitimate penological purpose and asked the court to ​“categorically prohibit the execution of individuals who were suffering from severe mental illness…

Facing a potential backlash from major aid donors, Uganda’s president has attempted to distance his government from legislative efforts to reintroduce a bill that would make consensual same-sex acts punishable by the death penalty and criminalize ​“promotion and recruitment” of homosexuality. The so-called ​“Kill the Gays” bill previously promoted by government officials would greatly expand the punishment of homosexuality under Ugandan law. The proposed bill is a more draconian version of a law…

The case of Texas death-row prisoner Rodney Reed (pictured, right), who is facing execution in Texas on November 20, 2019 despite powerful evidence of innocence, is attracting national attention from unusual sources. On October 10 and 11, the syndicated television show Dr. Phil devoted two episodes to an investigation of the innocence claims in Reed’s case. ​“I don’t think it’s a question of whether he’s guilty or not guilty,” host Dr. Phil McGraw (pictured, left) said. ​“I think the question…

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has granted a stay of execution for federal death row prisoner Lezmond Mitchell to prevent the U.S. government from executing him before the court can review an on-going appeal concerning possible anti-Native American bias in his case. Mitchell, who was scheduled to be executed on December 11, 2019, is a member of the Navajo Nation and the only Native American on federal death row. His case is one of several in the past year…

NEWS — October 18: The Nebraska Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge to the state’s execution protocol brought by the Rev. Stephen C. Griffith and State Senator Ernie Chambers, who had alleged that the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services had failed to comply with statutorily and constitutionally required procedures in adopting the protocol. The court did not uphold the protocol, but ruled that Griffith and Chambers lacked standing to challenge it because they ​“do not face death…

Florida has scheduled the execution of 73-year-old James Dailey (pictured) for November 7, 2019, despite substantial evidence that he had no involvement in the killing, including a statement by the admitted killer, Daley’s co-defendant, that he had acted alone. Dailey stands to be either the 100 death-row prisoner put to death by Florida since executions resumed in the 1970s or the state’s 30^th death-row exoneree. Dailey was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1985 killing of 14-year-old…

In the latest episode of Discussions with DPIC, Texas capital defense lawyer James Rytting (pictured) discusses the case of his client, Larry Swearingen, and the junk science that led to the execution of a man legitimate science strongly suggests was innocent. Rytting describes the false forensic analysis presented under the guise of science in Swearingen’s case, the appellate process that makes it ​“almost impossible” to obtain review of new evidence, and the persistent problem of wrongful…

The 2019 – 2020 U.S. Supreme Court term opened on October 7 with the Court declining to review challenges to death-penalty court decisions from a number of states and with the Court hearing argument in a Kansas death-penalty case raising constitutional questions about a defendant’s right to present an insanity defense. Among the more notable death penalty decisions, the Court denied a petition from an Alabama prisoner whose death sentence resulted in a judge’s override of a jury’s life verdict…

Change is coming to Oklahoma’s row. In July, a coalition of prisoners’ rights organizations called the state’s policy of housing its death-row prisoners in solitary confinement in an underground facility ​“inhumane and oppressive” and threatened legal action if reforms were not forthcoming. On September 26, 2019, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections announced that within 30 days it would be relocating ​“all qualifying death row inmates” to a different facility. Led by the American Civil…