Publications & Testimony

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has upheld a fed­er­al dis­trict court’s deci­sion order­ing a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing for Johnny Bennett, a black man who was sen­tenced to death by an all-white South Carolina jury in a tri­al taint­ed by a pros­e­cu­tor’s racial­ly-inflam­ma­to­ry cross-exam­i­na­tion and…

Los Angeles County, California is the home of the nation’s largest death row, one that sta­tis­tics show con­tin­ues to rapid­ly grow. In January 2013, Los Angeles was respon­si­ble for more death row pris­on­ers than any oth­er coun­ty in the United States, and it has ranked as one of the two most pro­lif­ic coun­ties in impos­ing new death sen­tences each year since. The 31 death sen­tences imposed in the coun­ty between 2010 and 2015 are more than any oth­er U.S. county…

In 1986, California vot­ers removed Rose Bird, the state’s first female supreme court chief jus­tice, from office after con­ser­v­a­tive groups spent more than $10 mil­lion in a recall effort that por­trayed her as ​“soft on crime,” empha­siz­ing her court opin­ions over­turn­ing death sen­tences that had been uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly imposed. Ten years lat­er, Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Penny White lost a reten­tion elec­tion after death penal­ty pro­po­nents and other…

The Louisiana Supreme Court has over­turned the con­vic­tion of Rodricus Crawford (pic­tured) and ordered that he be giv­en a new tri­al in a con­tro­ver­sial death penal­ty case that attract­ed nation­al atten­tion amid evi­dence of race dis­crim­i­na­tion, pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al excess, and actual…

A new study by Lewis & Clark Law School and Seattle University that exam­ined the costs of hun­dreds of aggra­vat­ed mur­der and mur­der cas­es in Oregon has con­clud­ed that ​“main­tain­ing the death penal­ty incurs a sig­nif­i­cant finan­cial bur­den on Oregon tax­pay­ers.” The researchers found that the aver­age tri­al and incar­cer­a­tion costs of an Oregon mur­der case that results in a death penal­ty are almost dou­ble those in a mur­der case that results in a sen­tence of life impris­on­ment or a…

Jefferson County, Alabama is among both the 2% of coun­ties that account for more than half of all exe­cu­tions in the U.S. and are respon­si­ble for more than half of all pris­on­ers on death row across the coun­try. It led the state in new death sen­tences from 2010 – 2015, putting more peo­ple on death row than 99.5% of U.S. coun­ties. All five of the defen­dants sen­tenced to death in those cas­es were…

California death penal­ty oppo­nents filed a tax­pay­er suit on November 9 to block Proposition 66—the bal­lot ini­tia­tive pro­mot­ed as speed­ing up the state’s exe­cu­tion process — from going into effect. The suit was filed by for­mer El Dorado County super­vi­sor Ron Briggs (pic­tured) — who co-authored the mea­sure to rein­state California’s death penal­ty in 1978 — and for­mer California Attorney General John van de Camp. California vot­ers nar­row­ly approved Proposition 66,…

Change may be in the off­ing in Hillsborough County, Florida after vot­ers oust­ed incum­bent State Attorney Mark Ober on November 8 and replaced him with a reform can­di­date, Andrew Warren…

Prosecutors in three coun­ties known for their out­lier prac­tices on the death penal­ty were defeat­ed by chal­lengers run­ning on reform plat­forms, while vot­ers in Oregon and Washington re-elect­ed gov­er­nors who act­ed to halt exe­cu­tions. In Hillsborough County, Florida, Democrat Andrew Warren defeat­ed Republican incum­bent Mark Ober (pic­tured, l.). Warren pledged to seek the death penal­ty less often and estab­lish a unit to uncov­er wrong­ful con­vic­tions. In Harris…

Voters in three states approved pro-death penal­ty bal­lot ques­tions Tuesday, while in a fourth, vot­ers turned back an effort to oust four Justices who had been crit­i­cized for grant­i­ng defen­dants relief in cap­i­tal cas­es. Amid wide­spread agree­ment that California​’s death penal­ty sys­tem is bro­ken, the state’s vot­ers reject­ed Proposition 62, which would have abol­ished the state’s death penal­ty and replaced it with life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole plus…