Publications & Testimony

The nation’s death rows con­tin­ue to shrink more rapid­ly than new defen­dants are being sen­tenced to death, accord­ing to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) sta­tis­ti­cal brief,​“Capital Punishment, 2016,” released April 30, 2018. (Click image to enlarge.) The sta­tis­ti­cal brief, which ana­lyzes infor­ma­tion on those under sen­tence of death in the United States as of December 31, 2016, con­tains offi­cial gov­ern­ment fig­ures documenting continuing…

As leg­is­la­tors and the media have pressed Nebraska for infor­ma­tion on its secre­tive exe­cu­tion prac­tices, the exec­u­tive branch has respond­ed — the state’s lead­ing news­pa­pers say — with obfus­ca­tion and with a law­suit that has cre­at­ed a state con­sti­tu­tion­al cri­sis. After adopt­ing a new exe­cu­tion pol­i­cy that the Lincoln Journal Star report­ed​“was writ­ten in a sin­gle draft with­out input from the gov­er­nor, attorney general,…

In 2005, Alfred Dewayne Brown (pic­tured left) was wrong­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of a Houston, Texas police offi­cer based on false tes­ti­mo­ny Harris County pros­e­cu­tors obtained through coer­cion and threats. After spend­ing a decade on death row for a crime he did not com­mit, Brown was final­ly released with the help of his attor­ney Brian Stolarz (pic­tured right), who…

The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles has halt­ed the exe­cu­tion of Robert Earl Butts, Jr. (pic­tured), less than 24 hours before the state intend­ed to put him to death. On May 2, the Board stayed Butts’s exe­cu­tion for up to 90 days, say­ing it need­ed addi­tion­al time​“to exam­ine the sub­stance of the claims offered in sup­port of the appli­ca­tion.” In a news release accom­pa­ny­ing the issuance of the stay, the Board said it had received a…

In an April 27 edi­to­r­i­al, the Los Angeles Times said the death penal­ty should come to an end and the recent exon­er­a­tion of California death-row pris­on­er Vicente Benavides Figueroa illus­trates why. Benavides — an intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled Mexican nation­al who was work­ing as a sea­son­al farm work­er — spent more than 25 years on death row after being wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death on charges of rap­ing, sodomizing,…

Six detainees charged with cap­i­tal crimes are cur­rent­ly being held at the U.S. Naval Base mil­i­tary prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Much of the infor­ma­tion relat­ing to these cas­es is clas­si­fied and all the par­tic­i­pants in the cas­es — pros­e­cu­tors, defense lawyers, and court per­son­nel — are required to have top secret secu­ri­ty clear­ance. As a result, sig­nif­i­cant por­tions of the pro­ceed­ings — includ­ing court motions and deci­sions — are heavily…

The April 2018 exon­er­a­tion of Vicente Benavides Figueroa, wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death on charges of rap­ing, sodom­iz­ing, and mur­der­ing his girl­friend’s 21-month-old daugh­ter, illus­trates why the death penal­ty should be abol­ished, the Los Angeles Times said in an April 27, 2018 edi­to­r­i­al. Benavides — an intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled Mexican nation­al who was work­ing as a sea­son­al farm work­er — was sen­tenced to death after…

The U.S. Supreme Court has grant­ed review in the case of Missouri death-row pris­on­er Russell Bucklew, who has argued that the severe form of a rare con­gen­i­tal dis­or­der from which he suf­fers makes it uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly cru­el for him to be exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion. Bucklew has an extreme form of cav­ernous heman­gioma, a mal­for­ma­tion of his blood ves­sels that caus­es blood-filled tumors to grow in his head, neck, and throat. The…

The New Hampshire state leg­is­la­ture has vot­ed to repeal the state’s death penal­ty, but pro­po­nents of the bill cur­rent­ly lack the votes nec­es­sary to over­come a threat­ened guber­na­to­r­i­al veto. On April 26, the New Hampshire House of Representatives vot­ed 223 – 116 to pass Senate Bill 593, with 145 Democrats, 77 Republicans, and one Libertarian sup­port­ing repeal. The state sen­ate pre­vi­ous­ly approved the mea­sure 14 – 10 on March 15, with sup­port from eight Democrats and…

On April 26, 2018, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) opened the Memorial for Peace and Justice and its accom­pa­ny­ing Legacy Museum, which tell the sto­ries of the more than 4,000 men, women, and chil­dren killed by racial ter­ror lynch­ings in the cen­tu­ry fol­low­ing the Civil War, and trace the con­nec­tions between slav­ery, seg­re­ga­tion, cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and mass incar­cer­a­tion. The open­ing drew thou­sands of vis­i­tors from across the coun­try, theatrical headliners,…