Publications & Testimony

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on February 9 declared uncon­sti­tu­tion­al Pennsylvania​’s long-stand­ing prac­tice of auto­mat­i­cal­ly keep­ing cap­i­tal defen­dants in soli­tary con­fine­ment after courts had over­turned their death sen­tences. Saying that, ​“Scientific research and evolv­ing jurispru­dence has made the harms of soli­tary con­fine­ment clear,” the unan­i­mous three-judge pan­el ruled that pris­on­ers whose death sen­tences have been over­turned have a constitutionally…

In a guest col­umn for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, retired fed­er­al appeals court judge Nathaniel R. Jones (pic­tured) urged Ohio to ​“recon­sid­er its race to death” in sched­ul­ing exe­cu­tions while the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of the state’s lethal injec­tion process remains in ques­tion. Jones, who served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from 1979 to 2002, crit­i­cized the state’s pro­posed use of the drug mida­zo­lam in executions,…

According to a new poll, near­ly two-thirds of Utah res­i­dents say they pre­fer some form of life sen­tence, rather than the death penal­ty, as the pun­ish­ment for mur­der, and a major­i­ty sup­port replac­ing the death penal­ty with a sen­tence of life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of…

Legislative com­mit­tees in Florida and Alabama have vot­ed to advance bills that would reform cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing pro­ce­dures in those states that have been the sub­ject of exten­sive con­sti­tu­tion­al chal­lenges. In Florida, the Senate Criminal Justice Committee by a vote of 6 – 0 approved a bill that would require a jury to unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend a death sen­tence before the tri­al judge could sen­tence a defen­dant to death. The bill would bring Florida’s…

More than 2,600 Florida cas­es — includ­ing at least one cap­i­tal case — may have been taint­ed by erro­neous fin­ger­print analy­sis by a long-term employ­ee of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, accord­ing to let­ters sent to defense coun­sel by the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office. The rev­e­la­tions were anoth­er in a series of events rais­ing ques­tions about the reli­a­bil­i­ty of foren­sic evi­dence that is being used in cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions across the United States. In ear­ly February…

In a February 6 edi­to­r­i­al, The New York TImes hails the reform efforts of the ​“new gen­er­a­tion” of state and local pros­e­cu­tors who are work­ing to change the United States’ crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem, and espe­cial­ly the use of the death penal­ty. The Times high­lights the com­ments of two new­ly elect­ed local pros­e­cu­tors, Beth McCann, the new pros­e­cu­tor in Denver, Colorado, and Kim Ogg, the new dis­trict attor­ney in Harris County, Texas. McCann has…

On February 3, Australia marked 50 years since its last exe­cu­tion. That exe­cu­tion — the hang­ing of Ronald Joseph Ryan on February 3, 1967 for the mur­der of a prison guard dur­ing an escape attempt — came at a time in which sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the coun­try was already wan­ing. The state of Victoria, where Ryan was exe­cut­ed, had not had an exe­cu­tion since 1951. Though cer­tain crimes car­ried a manda­to­ry death sen­tence, the state gov­ern­ment cab­i­net had com­mut­ed 34 of the…

Bills to exempt indi­vid­u­als with severe men­tal ill­ness from fac­ing the death penal­ty are expect­ed in at least sev­en states in 2017. Legislators in Idaho, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Virginia have either intro­duced such leg­is­la­tion or announced that they plan to. Six of the sev­en states have spon­sor­ship from Republican leg­is­la­tors, indicating…

A Texas fed­er­al appeals court has upheld the rul­ing by a U.S. dis­trict court judge to stay the exe­cu­tion of John Henry Ramirez, who had been sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Texas on February 2. The District Court had ruled that Ramirez was enti­tled to a stay so new lawyers could seek clemen­cy on his behalf after Michael Gross, the lawyer ini­tial­ly appoint­ed to rep­re­sent Ramirez in his state and fed­er­al habeas cor­pus pro­ceed­ings, had failed to…