Publications & Testimony

Citing​“relent­less non-com­­pli­ance” with court orders and​“chron­ic obstruc­tion­ism” by a pros­e­cu­tion team it says​“has effec­tive­ly com­pro­mised” Scott Dekraai​’s rights to due process and a fair penal­ty tri­al, a California tri­al court has barred pros­e­cu­tors from pur­su­ing the death penal­ty in the worst mass killing in Orange County…

The states of Arkansas and Nevada have announced that they have obtained new sup­plies of exe­cu­tion drugs that will per­mit them to car­ry out two exe­cu­tions in what crit­ics have called questionable…

Merck Chief Executive Officer Kenneth C. Frazier (pic­tured) resigned from the president’s American Manufacturing Council on August 14, say­ing “[a]s CEO of Merck and as a mat­ter of per­son­al con­science, I feel a respon­si­bil­i­ty to take a stand against intol­er­ance and extrem­ism.” In a state­ment post­ed on Merck’s Twitter account, Frazier said:​“Our coun­try’s strength stems from its diver­si­ty and the con­tri­bu­tions made by men and women of…

After hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly grant­ed Marcellus Williams (pic­tured) a stay of exe­cu­tion in 2015 to per­mit DNA test­ing in his case, the Missouri Supreme Court on August 15 sum­mar­i­ly denied him a new exe­cu­tion stay, despite recent­ly obtained results of that test­ing that sup­port his innocence…

An Arizona death-row pris­on­er has peti­tioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statute, argu­ing that Arizona’s sen­tenc­ing scheme​“utter­ly fails” the con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly required task of lim­it­ing the death penal­ty to the worst crimes and…

A group of more than 100 rab­bis from mul­ti­ple Jewish denom­i­na­tions have issued a state­ment express­ing their oppo­si­tion to the use of the death penal­ty in the United States. The state­ment, post­ed by Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz (pic­tured) in Forward.com’s Scribe—a curat­ed con­trib­u­tor net­work of Jewish thought — called for an end to the​“cru­el prac­tice” of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and​“for the begin­ning of a new par­a­digm of fair, equitable restorative…

In a deci­sion that could have broad impact on the state’s death row, the Florida Supreme Court on August 10 upheld the death sen­tence imposed on James Hitchcock, despite his hav­ing been uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly sen­tenced to death. In a 6 – 1 rul­ing, the court said it would not enforce its 2016 rul­ing in Hurst v. State—which declared uncon­sti­tu­tion­al any death sen­tence imposed after one or more sen­tenc­ing jurors had voted…

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…

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…

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…