Publications & Testimony

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…

Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety, New Hampshire House of Representatives: Testimony on HB 351 – Making the Killing of a Person Under Age 18 a Capital Offense by Robert Brett Dunham, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center (Concord, February…

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…

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…

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…

Prosecutors in Augusta, Georgia are seek­ing the death penal­ty against a man accused of mur­der­ing the Rev. Rene Robert (pic­tured), despite their knowl­edge that the Franciscan priest had request­ed that the death penal­ty not be used​“under any cir­cum­stances” if he were killed. On January 31, Catholic Bishops from Georgia and Florida trav­eled to Augusta to meet with Hank Sims, the…

A BuzzFeed News inves­ti­ga­tion reports that Texas sought to import exe­cu­tion drugs from a sup­pli­er in India that the Indian Narcotics Control Bureau shut down for alleged­ly sell­ing psy­chotrop­ic drugs and opi­oids ille­gal­ly to cus­tomers in the United…

Missouri plans to exe­cute Mark Christeson (pic­tured) on January 31, with­out his case ever receiv­ing sub­stan­tive review in a federal…

A new study reports that at least 201 Florida death row pris­on­ers — includ­ing at least 134 whom judges sen­tenced to death after juries had returned non-unan­i­­mous sen­tenc­ing rec­om­men­da­tions — may be eli­gi­ble for resen­tenc­ing hear­ings as a result of recent rul­ings by the United States and Florida Supreme Courts declar­ing the state’s death sentencing practices…

After receiv­ing evi­dence dur­ing a five-day hear­ing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael R. Merz ruled on January 26 that Ohio’s lethal injec­tion process will cre­ate a sub­stan­tial and objec­tive­ly intol­er­a­ble risk of seri­ous harm in vio­la­tion of the Eighth Amendment. Based on that rul­ing, the court issued a pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tion stay­ing the exe­cu­tions of Ronald Phillips, Raymond Tibbetts, and Gary Otte. Ohio…