Publications & Testimony

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5^th Circuit says that​“Adam Kelly Ward (pic­tured) has been afflict­ed with men­tal ill­ness his entire life.” Yet Texas will exe­cute him on March 22 unless the U.S. Supreme Court grants him a stay to review his case. Ward’s lawyers argue that the exe­cu­tion of a per­son who is severe­ly men­tal­ly ill con­sti­tutes cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment and that, for that rea­son, Ward should not be exe­cut­ed. The Texas Court…

Baptist ethi­cist and the­olo­gian Dr. Roger E. Olson (pic­tured) recent­ly issued a call​“for Christian church­es to pub­licly stand against the death penal­ty for Christian rea­sons.” A pro­fes­sor of Christian Theology and Ethics at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Dr. Olson writes in an essay for the the­ol­o­gy web­site Patheos​.com that​“authen­tic Christians must oppose the death penal­ty.” He says that, while “[t]here are many sec­u­lar rea­sons to abolish…

A new arti­cle by Cornell Law School Professor John Blume (pic­tured) and Lindsey Vann of Justice 360 ana­lyzes South Carolina​’s expe­ri­ence with the death penal­ty over the last 40 years and argues that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the Palmetto State con­tin­ues to exhib­it the same arbi­trary and dis­crim­i­na­to­ry fea­tures that led the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the death penal­ty in 1972. Using Justice Stephen Breyer’s…

In a divid­ed 4 – 3 deci­sion, the Ohio Supreme Court on March 16, 2016 autho­rized the state to try for a sec­ond time to exe­cute death row inmate Romell Broom (pic­tured, after the state’s failed first attempt to exe­cute him). The court major­i­ty held that a sec­ond exe­cu­tion attempt would not vio­late con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­tec­tions against twice plac­ing a defen­dant in jeop­ardy of life, nor con­sti­tute cruel and…

United States District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis (pic­tured) ruled on March 15 that fed­er­al death row inmate Ronell Wilson is inel­i­gi­ble for the death penal­ty because he has intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Atkins v. Virginia that the death penal­ty con­sti­tut­ed cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment when applied to peo­ple diag­nosed with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty, then known as men­tal retar­da­tion. Wilson was first…

In two sep­a­rate op-eds, an Ohio Supreme Court Justice and a death row exoneree from Ohio expressed con­cerns about wrong­ful con­vic­tions that have led them to believe the death penal­ty should be abol­ished. In The Highland County Press, Justice Paul Pfeifer (pic­tured, r.) wrote about the​“long and com­plex” case of Thomas Keenan, who was grant­ed a new tri­al because pros­e­cu­tors ille­gal­ly with­held evi­dence. Pfeifer…

Darryl Hunt (pic­tured), an exoneree and anti-death penal­ty advo­cate, was found dead in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on March 13, 2016. Hunt was wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed of the 1984 rape and mur­der of Deborah Sykes, a news­pa­per copy edi­tor. Prosecutors sought the death penal­ty against him, but he received a life sen­tence because a sin­gle juror refused to vote for death. His con­vic­tion was over­turned in 1989 and pros­e­cu­tors offered Hunt a deal…

The recent book, 13 Ways of Looking at the Death Penalty, by Mario Marazziti, explores the United States’ con­tin­u­ing use of the death penal­ty in a world com­mu­ni­ty that is increas­ing­ly reject­ing the prac­tice. The Philadelphia Inquirer calls the book​“an inter­est­ing, com­pelling look at the cul­tur­al and reli­gious under­pin­nings of the death penal­ty and how we got here. More impor­tant, [Marazziti’s] inter­views with U.S.

Creighton Horton spent 30 years as a pros­e­cu­tor with the Salt Lake District Attorney’s Office and Utah Attorney General’s Office before retir­ing in 2009. In a recent op-ed, he said his expe­ri­ence han­dling cap­i­tal cas­es led him to believe Utah should abolish the…

UPDATE: Wesbrook was exe­cut­ed on Mar. 9. EARLIER: Coy Wesbrook is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Texas on March 9. If the exe­cu­tion pro­ceeds, it will be the eighth in the U.S. this year, half of which have been in Texas. Wesbrook killed five peo­ple after a con­fronta­tion with his ex-wife. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that defen­dants with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty (for­mer­ly referred to as​“men­tal retar­da­tion”) are exempt…