Publications & Testimony

As sup­port for the death penal­ty has declined in America, the process of​“death-qual­i­­fi­­ca­­tion” — which screens poten­tial jurors in death-penal­­ty cas­es based upon their views about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment — pro­duces increas­ing­ly unrep­re­sen­ta­tive juries from which African Americans are dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly exclud­ed and, accord­ing to a new study by researchers at the University of California, increas­ing­ly bias­es juries in favor of conviction and…

Voters in North Carolina added their voic­es to an expand­ing move­ment for local crim­i­nal jus­tice reform, oust­ing sher­iffs who close­ly coop­er­at­ed with fed­er­al author­i­ties seek­ing to detain and deport immi­grants and nom­i­nat­ing reform can­di­dates in local district…

Finding that pros­e­cu­tors with­held evi­dence that the fam­i­ly of mur­der vic­tim Jonas Cherry opposed the death penal­ty for his accused killer and then lied to jurors that Cherry’s fam­i­ly sup­port­ed the death penal­ty, a tri­al judge in Tarrant County, Texas has rec­om­mend­ed over­turn­ing the death sen­tence imposed on Paul David Storey (pic­tured) and replac­ing it with a sen­tence of life…

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…