Publications & Testimony

Though no phys­i­cal evi­dence links him to the crime, Texas is set to exe­cute Robert Pruett (pic­tured) on October 12 for the 1999 stab­bing death of a state cor­rec­tion­al offi­cer who was at the cen­ter of a prison cor­rup­tion inves­ti­ga­tion. Results of a DNA test of the mur­der weapon in 2015 found DNA that matched nei­ther Pruett nor the vic­tim, Officer Daniel…

Two cas­es in which pros­e­cu­tors have elect­ed to pur­sue the death penal­ty against aging or infirm defen­dants who will almost cer­tain­ly nev­er be exe­cut­ed have raised ques­tions about the costs and ben­e­fits of cap­i­tal charges and the arbi­trary exer­cise of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al dis­cre­tion. Federal pros­e­cu­tors in Missouri are seek­ing the death penal­ty against 61-year-old Ulysses Jones Jr., a man with ter­mi­nal renal dis­ease, for the 2006 killing of anoth­er pris­on­er at a fed­er­al prison…

The United States has vot­ed against an his­toric res­o­lu­tion passed by the United Nations Human Rights Council con­demn­ing the crim­i­nal­iza­tion of and use of the death penal­ty for apos­ta­sy, blas­phe­my, adul­tery, and con­sen­su­al same-sex rela­tions and call­ing on nations in which the death penal­ty is legal to ensure that it is not imposed ​“arbi­trar­i­ly or in a dis­crim­i­na­to­ry man­ner.” The res­o­lu­tion also called for an end to the dis­crim­i­na­to­ry use of the death penalty…

Death-row exoneree John Thompson (pic­tured), described by Innocence Project New Orleans direc­tor Emily Maw, as ​“an amaz­ing force in the world” and a ​“nation­al leg­end,” died October 3 at a New Orleans-area hos­pi­tal after suf­fer­ing a heart…

Duane Buck (pic­tured), the Texas death-row pris­on­er whose con­tro­ver­sial racial­ly taint­ed death sen­tence was reversed by the U.S Supreme Court in February, has been resen­tenced to life in prison. In a plea deal entered in a Harris County (Houston) court­room on October 3, Buck, who is 54, pled guilty to two new counts of attempt­ed mur­der that each car­ried terms of 60 years in prison to be served con­cur­rent­ly with two life sen­tences imposed on…

“The death penal­ty in the United States is at the end of its rope [and] its abo­li­tion will be a cat­a­lyst for reform­ing our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem.” So argues University of Virginia Law Professor Brandon L. Garrett in his wide­ly antic­i­pat­ed new book, End of Its Rope: How Killing the Death Penalty Can Revive Criminal Justice, which ana­lyzes the rea­sons behind the steep decline in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in over the last 25 years. With the help of other…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has upheld the death sen­tence imposed by an Alabama tri­al judge who dis­re­gard­ed the jury’s 10 – 2 vote in favor of a life sen­tence and sen­tenced Bobby Waldrop (pic­tured) to death because of his race. When he imposed Waldrop’s death sen­tence, Randolph County Circuit Court Judge Dale Segrest, who is white, referred to three pri­or cas­es in which he had over­ri­den jury life ver­dicts and said: ​“If I…

The United States Supreme Court will review a Louisiana death-penal­ty case to answer the ques­tion ​“Is it uncon­sti­tu­tion­al for defense coun­sel to con­cede an accused’s guilt over the accused’s express objec­tion?” On September 27, the court agreed to hear McCoy v. Louisiana, a case in which defense coun­sel informed the jury in his open­ing argu­ment that Robert McCoy (pic­tured) — who was charged with mur­der­ing the son, moth­er, and step­fa­ther of his…

After stay­ing Tilon Carter’s exe­cu­tion in May to con­sid­er alle­ga­tions that his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence were the prod­uct of false or mis­lead­ing foren­sic tes­ti­mo­ny, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has now ruled that Carter (pic­tured) is enti­tled to an evi­den­tiary hear­ing on two of his claims. In a September 27 order, the appeals court direct­ed the Tarrant County (Fort Worth) tri­al court to con­duct a hear­ing on whether Texas ​“pre­sent­ed false or…

Three hours after his exe­cu­tion was sched­uled to begin, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the exe­cu­tion of Keith Tharpe (pic­tured), a Georgia death-row pris­on­er who sought review of his claim that he was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly sen­tenced to death because a juror whom Tharpe alleged ​“har­bored pro­found racial ani­mus against African Americans vot­ed to impose the death penal­ty … because of his…