Publications & Testimony

On June 6, the U.S. Supreme Court grant­ed writs of cer­tio­rari in two Texas death penal­ty cas­es, and will review the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of those death sen­tences dur­ing its next term. The two cas­es are Buck v. Stephens, in which Duane Buck was sen­tenced to death after a psy­chol­o­gist tes­ti­fied at his penal­ty tri­al that the fact that Buck is African-American increas­es the like­li­hood that he presents a future dan­ger to soci­ety; and…

Louisiana will not con­duct any exe­cu­tions in 2016 or 2017 as a result of a new court order issued with the con­sent of the par­ties in fed­er­al pro­ceed­ings chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Louisiana’s lethal injec­tion process. At the request of the Louisiana Attorney General, a fed­er­al judge has delayed pro­ceed­ings on the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­to­col for an addi­tion­al 18 months, mak­ing January 2018 the ear­li­est date the state could resume exe­cu­tions. Attorney General…

The U.S. Supreme Court has over­turned a death sen­tence imposed on Shawn Patrick Lynch by an Arizona jury that had not been told he would have been inel­i­gi­ble for parole if jurors sen­tenced to him to life impris­on­ment. In a 6 – 2 deci­sion on May 31, the Court agreed to review Lynch’s case, vacat­ed the judg­ment of the Arizona Supreme Court, and sum­mar­i­ly reversed Lynch’s death…

Pfizer​’s recent announce­ment that it was tight­en­ing con­trols against what it calls the mis­use of its med­i­cines in exe­cu­tions high­lights an on-going strug­gle between states des­per­ate for exe­cu­tion drugs and a med­ical com­mu­ni­ty that believes its involve­ment in the lethal injec­tion process vio­lates its med­ical and cor­po­rate mis­sions and the eth­i­cal stan­dards of the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal and health pro­fes­sions. As Pfizer and near­ly two dozen oth­er phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies have ended…

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has grant­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion to Charles Flores (pic­tured) to per­mit him to lit­i­gate a claim that pros­e­cu­tors uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced him to death by using unre­li­able hyp­not­i­cal­ly refreshed tes­ti­mo­ny. Texas had sched­uled Flores’ exe­cu­tion for June 2. Flores, who is Latino, was con­vict­ed in 1999 of mur­der­ing a 64-year-old white woman in sub­ur­ban Dallas, and was sen­tenced to death. Prosecutors presented…

In a 5 – 2 deci­sion issued May 26, the Connecticut Supreme Court reaf­firmed its August 2015 deci­sion in State v. Santiago that the death penal­ty vio­lates Connecticut’s state…

The Nebraska Supreme Court heard oral argu­ment on May 25 in a chal­lenge to the pro­posed November ref­er­en­dum that could reverse the state leg­is­la­ture’s 2015 repeal of the death penal­ty (vote results pic­tured left). Christy and Richard Hargesheimer, who oppose the death penal­ty, are chal­leng­ing the doc­u­ments sub­mit­ted by Nebraskans for the Death Penalty, the orga­ni­za­tion sup­port­ing the ref­er­en­dum, on the grounds that the group violated state…

As California pros­e­cu­tors and law enforce­ment offi­cials sub­mit­ted sig­na­tures back­ing a bal­lot ini­tia­tive intend­ed to speed up the state’s dys­func­tion­al death penal­ty appeals process, a coali­tion of inno­cence advo­cates and wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed exonerees warned that the pro­pos­al will sub­stan­tial­ly increase the risk that California will exe­cute an inno­cent per­son. The ini­tia­tive, spon­sored by dis­trict attor­neys with major fund­ing by the state’s prison guards’ union, would…

I. Beverly Lake, Jr. — a staunch sup­port­er of North Carolina​’s death penal­ty dur­ing his years as a State Senator and who, as a for­mer Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, repeat­ed­ly vot­ed to uphold death sen­tences — has changed his stance on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. In a recent piece for The Huffington Post, Lake said he not only sup­port­ed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as a State Senator, he ​“vig­or­ous­ly advo­cat­ed” for it and ​“cast my vote at appro­pri­ate times to uphold…

Cert. grant­ed May 26, 2015 as Foster v. HumphreyArgument: Nov. 2, 2015Decided: May 23,…