Publications & Testimony

Jefferson County, Alabama Circuit Judge Tracie Todd (pic­tured) ruled on March 3 that Alabama’s cap­i­tal sen­tenc­ing pro­ce­dure vio­lates the U.S. Constitution. Judge Todd barred the death penal­ty for four cap­i­tal mur­der defen­dants, say­ing that Alabama’s use of judi­cial over­ride vio­lates the Sixth…

Delaware pub­lic defend­ers have filed a brief in the Delaware Supreme Court argu­ing that the state’s death sen­tenc­ing pro­ce­dures are uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. In their brief, the defend­ers describe ​“mul­ti­ple con­sti­tu­tion­al prob­lems” that they say ​“require Delaware’s death penal­ty scheme to be sub­stan­tial­ly restruc­tured.” These include sev­er­al pro­ce­dures that they say are uncon­sti­tu­tion­al under the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent 8 – 1 deci­sion in Hurst v. Florida.…

Stephen Urquhart (pic­tured), a Republican state sen­a­tor in Utah, sup­port­ed the death penal­ty until about a year ago, when a friend con­vinced him that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment did­n’t fit his con­ser­v­a­tive beliefs. Now Urquhart sees the death penal­ty as inef­fi­cient, cost­ly, and wrong and is the lead spon­sor of a bill to repeal the state’s death penal­ty. He said con­cerns about the cost of the death penal­ty and the risk of exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son changed his stance on the issue. In…

On February 29, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argu­ment in Williams v. Pennsylvania, a case chal­leng­ing for­mer Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in the state’s appeal of a death penal­ty case involv­ing Terry Williams (pic­tured), whose cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion Castille per­son­al­ly autho­rized in his ear­li­er role as Philadelphia District Attorney. A low­er court judge over­turned Williams’ death sen­tence in 2012 find­ing that Philadelphia…

United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the Court’s most ardent pro­po­nents of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, has died at age…

A Wake County North Carolina jury vot­ed on February 22 to sen­tence cap­i­tal defen­dant Travion Devonte Smith to life with­out parole, mak­ing Smith’s case the sixth con­sec­u­tive Wake County death penal­ty tri­al to end with a life…

Former Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Director Terry J. Collins (pic­tured) says the death penal­ty is ​“a failed pub­lic pol­i­cy” that ​“isn’t worth fix­ing.” With 30 years of expe­ri­ence as a war­den, region­al cor­rec­tions direc­tor, assis­tant direc­tor, and then cor­rec­tions direc­tor, Collins par­tic­i­pat­ed in 33 exe­cu­tions. He says, ​“With each exe­cu­tion I asked myself: Did the exten­sive process of appeals ensure we got it right? I often won­dered if we…

Duval County, Florida pros­e­cu­tors are seek­ing the death penal­ty for the 2013 mur­der of Shelby Farah (pic­tured), over the objec­tions of Ms. Farah’s fam­i­ly. After unsuc­cess­ful attempts to per­suade pros­e­cu­tors to non-cap­i­tal­ly resolve the case, Darlene Farah, Ms. Farah’s moth­er, pub­licly expressed her views in a recent col­umn in TIME. Farah said, ​“I do not want my fam­i­ly to go through the years of tri­als and appeals that come with death-penal­ty cas­es.” Instead, she wants her…

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens (pic­tured), in remarks to a cap­i­tal case sem­i­nar host­ed by California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, crit­i­cized the death penal­ty as a ​“waste­ful enter­prise” and urged vot­ers, leg­is­la­tors, and the courts to address the issue. Speaking by video, the for­mer Justice said, ​“Few oth­er civ­i­lized soci­eties engage in such a waste­ful use of resources with no demon­strat­ed ben­e­fit to soci­ety. Taxpayers should ter­mi­nate this waste as expe­di­tious­ly as…

In an address at the Vatican on February 21, Pope Francis (pic­tured) broad­ened his call for a glob­al end to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and urged Catholic lead­ers around the world to take action to halt all exe­cu­tions dur­ing the Church’s ongo­ing ​“Holy Year of Mercy.” The pon­tif­f’s address was a pre­lude to a two-day inter­na­tion­al con­fer­ence, ​“A World Without the Death Penalty,” host­ed in Rome by the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Catholic orga­ni­za­tion that oppos­es cap­i­tal punishment.