Publications & Testimony

In a case that raises concerns about procedural impediments that prevent enforcement of constitutional rights, Florida is preparing to execute a man whose claim of intellectual disability has never been reviewed by the state or federal courts. [UPDATE: Florida executed Gary Ray Bowles on August 22, 2019.] In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Atkins v. Virginia that the use of the death penalty against individuals with intellectual disability constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, in…

With serious doubts swirling as to virtually every piece of forensic evidence in his case, Texas plans to execute Larry Swearingen — who has always maintained his innocence in the murder of Melissa Trotter — on August 21, 2019. His attorneys say his conviction is grounded in junk science that has been repudiated by numerous forensic experts, including false testimony regarding pantyhose used to strangle Trotter, blood found under her fingernails, and the time of her death. Even after the Texas…

Leaders from two of the three congregations affected by the October 27, 2018 shootings at the Tree of Life synagogue (pictured) in Pittsburgh are asking the federal government not to seek a death sentence for the accused white supremacist murderer. Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of New Light Congregation and President Donna Coufal of Dor Hadash Congregation wrote letters to Attorney General William Barr, requesting that Robert Bowers, charged with killing 11 Jewish worshippers in Pittsburgh, receive a…

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform announced on August 14, 2019 that it has launched an investigation into the Department of Justice’s plan to restart federal executions using the drug pentobarbital. Citing concerns about the source of drugs the Administration intends to use in five executions it has scheduled in December 2019 and January 2020, the Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties has sought documents and information from…

NEWS: Texas and Florida carried out the 12^th and 13^th U.S. executions in 2019 on August 21 and August 22. They were the fourth execution in Texas and the second in Florida this year. Texas executed Larry Swearingen on August 21, after the Texas Board of Pardons denied clemency and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene. Swearingen’s conviction rested on what he alleges was multiple layers of junk science and false forensic testimony. Since executions resumed in the 1970s, Texas has now…

A life sentence recently imposed in America’s deadliest death-penalty county illustrates the impact of Alabama’s 2017 repeal of its former law permitting trial judges to impose the death penalty despite jury votes for life. On August 9, 2019, Houston County Judge Larry Anderson sentenced Nathaniel Dennis to life in prison without parole for the murder of a convenience store clerk, after the jury in his case recommended a life sentence. According to news reports, Anderson had wanted to impose a…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has stayed the execution of Texas death-row prisoner Dexter Darnell Johnson one day before he was scheduled to die. The ruling, issued late in the day on August 14, 2019, permits Johnson to litigate his claim that he is ineligible for the death penalty because of intellectual disability. The stay marked the second time in four months that federal courts intervened in Johnson’s case to halt a looming execution. On April 30, 2019, the U.S. District…

The high cost of meeting its obligation to provide constitutionally-mandated effective representation for indigent defendants in capital cases continues to generate controversy in Utah’s fourth largest county. With two capital trials pending and a lengthy post-conviction proceeding underway on whether a court-appointed lawyer in a third capital case provided ineffective representation, the Salt Lake Tribune reports that Weber County is facing bills for defense costs that will run into the…

Sister Helen Prejean, the acclaimed author of Dead Man Walking, has written a new spiritual memoir, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey. The book, released August 13, 2019 by Random House publishers, tells the story of her spiritual development from joining the Congregation of St. Joseph at age 18 to becoming a leading voice in the movement to abolish the death penalty. The ​“spark at the heart of [her death-penalty activism],” Prejean told The New York Times, was when, in her forties, she…

Advocates from a variety of backgrounds are urging Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to stop the August 15, 2019 execution of Stephen West (pictured), saying that West did not commit the murder and urging the governor not to execute a man who is severely mentally ill. [UPDATE: Governor Lee denied clemency and West was executed on August 15.] In a July clemency petition that is pending before the governor, West’s lawyers argue for mercy based upon his innocence of murder and his debilitating…