Publications & Testimony

Walter Ogrod was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in Philadelphia in 1996 for the 1988 mur­der of a 4‑year-old girl, whose body was found in a dis­card­ed tele­vi­sion box. Ogrod, who is devel­op­men­tal­ly dis­abled, has long main­tained his inno­cence, but despite sig­nif­i­cant irreg­u­lar­i­ties in the case and amidst alle­ga­tions of offi­cial mis­con­duct, local pros­e­cu­tors have fought efforts to obtain DNA test­ing of the phys­i­cal evi­dence and to inves­ti­gate the role a dis­cred­it­ed prison infor­mant played in…

Calling eye­wit­ness accounts ​“hor­ri­fy­ing,” attor­neys for Arkansas pris­on­er Kenneth Williams (pic­tured) are seek­ing the preser­va­tion of evi­dence and ​“a full inves­ti­ga­tion” into what they described as Williams’ ​“prob­lem­at­ic…

The con­di­tions in which pris­on­ers on Texas’ death row are con­fined are ​“harsh and inhu­mane,” vio­late inter­na­tion­al human rights norms, and amount to ​“a severe and relent­less act of tor­ture,” accord­ing to a new study by the University of Texas School of Law Human Rights…

After spend­ing more than a year study­ing Oklahoma​’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment prac­tices, the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission has unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed that the state extend its cur­rent mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions ​“until sig­nif­i­cant reforms are accom­plished.” The bipar­ti­san com­mis­sion issued its report on April 25, 2017, reach­ing what it char­ac­ter­ized as ​“dis­turb­ing” find­ings that ​“led Commission mem­bers to ques­tion whether the death penal­ty can be…

Arkansas car­ried out the nation’s first dou­ble exe­cu­tion in near­ly 17 years on April 24, 2017. The state exe­cut­ed Jack Jones (pic­tured, l.) and Marcel Williams (pic­tured, r.) about three hours apart, with Williams’ exe­cu­tion delayed fol­low­ing alle­ga­tions that Jones’ exe­cu­tion may have been…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a final order refus­ing to release ille­gal­ly import­ed med­i­cines that the states of Texas and Arizona had intend­ed to use in…

On April 20, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Ivan Teleguz (pic­tured), whom the Commonwealth had sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on April 25. Teleguz will now serve a sen­tence of life with­out parole. It was the first death-penal­ty clemen­cy ever issued by Gov. McAuliffe. The offi­cial state­ment released to the media in con­junc­tion with the com­mu­ta­tion out­lined sev­er­al of the fac­tors that influ­enced the Governor’s deci­sion, including the…

In 1949, Norma Padgett, a white 17-year-old, false­ly accused four young black men in Groveland, Florida of kid­nap­ping and rap­ing her. Nearly 70 years lat­er, the state of Florida is apol­o­giz­ing to the fam­i­lies of the ​“Groveland Four,” two of whom were mur­dered and two of whom were wrong­ly sentenced to…

Two Arkansas death-row pris­on­ers who are sched­uled be exe­cut­ed on April 20 have asked the Arkansas courts to stay their exe­cu­tions to per­mit DNA test­ing in their cas­es. Stacey Johnson (pic­tured, l.) and Ledell Lee (pic­tured, r.) both say they did not com­mit the crimes for which they were sen­tenced to death, and both say that DNA test­ing meth­ods not avail­able at the time of their trials could…

Caddo Parish, Louisiana pros­e­cu­tors for­mal­ly dropped charges against Rodricus Crawford (pic­tured) on April 17, exon­er­at­ing him in a con­tro­ver­sial death penal­ty case that had attract­ed nation­al atten­tion amid evi­dence of race dis­crim­i­na­tion, pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al excess, and actu­al inno­cence. He is the 158^th per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row in the United States since…