Publications & Testimony

A fed­er­al appeals court in Washington has ordered the recusal of a mil­i­tary judge from hear­ing an appeal in the Guantánamo mil­i­tary com­mis­sion death penal­ty tri­al of five defen­dants accused of direct respon­si­bil­i­ty for the 9/​11 attacks. A unan­i­mous three-judge pan­el of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled on August 8 that Judge Scott L. Silliman of the United States Court of Military Commission Review…

A fed­er­al appeals court has vacat­ed the con­vic­tion and death sen­tence of Patrick Dwayne Murphy (pic­tured), a Native-American death-row pris­on­er in Oklahoma from the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, hold­ing that the state lacked author­i­ty to try him for a mur­der that occurred with­in the bor­ders of the Creek…

Mark White (offi­cial por­trait, pic­tured), a for­mer gov­er­nor and attor­ney gen­er­al of Texas who became an out­spo­ken crit­ic of the death penal­ty, died on August 5 at the age of 77. Mr. White served as gov­er­nor from 1983 to 1987, dur­ing which time he over­saw 19 exe­cu­tions. In an unsuc­cess­ful come­back bid in 1990, a cam­paign ad tout­ed his strong sup­port for the death penal­ty, fea­tur­ing pho­tos of the men exe­cut­ed dur­ing his tenure as gov­er­nor and declar­ing, ​“Only a governor can…

A Kentucky tri­al court has declared the death penal­ty uncon­sti­tu­tion­al when applied against defen­dants charged with offens­es com­mit­ted while they were younger than age 21. Fayette County Circuit Judge Ernesto Scorsone’s rul­ing bars the Commonwealth’s pros­e­cu­tors from seek­ing the death penal­ty against Travis Bredhold (pic­tured), who was age 18 years and five months at the time of the 2013 mur­der and rob­bery of a gas station…

A Cobb County, Georgia tri­al court has declared a severe­ly men­tal­ly ill cap­i­tal defen­dant incom­pe­tent to stand tri­al and com­mit­ted him to a state men­tal hos­pi­tal, effec­tive­ly end­ing pros­e­cu­tors’ sev­en-year efforts to obtain the death penal­ty in his case. Jesse James Warren (pic­tured) was fac­ing tri­al and a pos­si­ble death sen­tence for killing four men and wound­ing anoth­er in 2010 at a Penske Truck Rental store where he had pre­vi­ous­ly worked. The shooting spree…

In a forth­com­ing arti­cle in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, released online in July, Ben Jones argues that, despite the pop­u­lar con­cep­tion of death-penal­ty abo­li­tion as a polit­i­cal­ly pro­gres­sive cause, its future suc­cess may well depend upon build­ing sup­port among Republicans and polit­i­cal con­ser­v­a­tives. In The Republican Party, Conservatives, and the Future of Capital Punishment, Jones — the Assistant Director of Rock Ethics Institute at Pennsylvania…

South Carolina pros­e­cu­tors announced on July 25 that they would not appeal a tri­al court rul­ing, grant­i­ng a new, non-cap­i­tal tri­al to for­mer death-row pris­on­er Kenneth Simmons (pic­tured). Finding that pros­e­cu­tors had pre­sent­ed false DNA tes­ti­mo­ny that ​“severe­ly deprived” Simmons of his due process rights, a Dorchester County Circuit Judge overturned Simmons’s…

The American Bar Association has released a new pub­li­ca­tion, The State of Criminal Justice 2017, an annu­al report exam­in­ing major issues, trends, and sig­nif­i­cant changes in America’s crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem. In a chap­ter devot­ed to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, Ronald J. Tabak, chair of the Death Penalty Committee of the ABA’s Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, describes sig­nif­i­cant death penal­ty cas­es and devel­op­ments over the past year. Tabak…

A Nebraska tri­al judge has per­mit­ted Patrick Schroeder (pic­tured) — whose lawyers from the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy had chal­lenged the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s death penal­ty — to fire his lawyers, with­draw the chal­lenge, and plead guilty to first-degree mur­der. The court deferred until August 22 whether to also per­mit Schroeder to waive his right to have a jury decide whether aggra­vat­ing cir­cum­stance exist that could make him eligible for…