Publications & Testimony

The Texas 3^rd District Court of Appeals has rejected claims made by state corrections officials that disclosure of the identity of its supplier of the execution drug pentobarbital would expose the company to a ​“substantial threat of physical harm.” Finding these claims to be ​“mere speculation,” the appeals court ruled on May 25, 2017, that Texas must disclose the identity of the compounding pharmacy that supplied execution drugs to the state in 2014. The ruling upholds a Travis County District…

Thirty years after the crime that sent him to Pennsylvania’s death row and 15 years after his case was argued in the U.S. Supreme Court, David Sattazahn was resentenced to life without parole — the sentence he initially received in his first trial in 1991. Prosecutors, defense attorneys, and the victim’s family all agreed that a life sentence was the best outcome at this point in the case. Sattazahn was convicted of first-degree murder and the court sentenced him to life in prison in 1991 when…

Tommy Arthur (pictured), an Alabama death-row prisoner whose 35-year journey through the court system has frustrated both proponents and opponents of the death penalty, is scheduled to be executed on May 25, 2017, the eighth time Alabama has set an execution date in his case. Arthur — whose conviction and death sentence has twice been overturned by the courts and was sentenced to death by his trial judge based upon a non-unanimous jury sentencing recommendation — has steadfastly maintained his…

On May 22, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Florida’s petition for a writ of certiorari in Florida v. Hurst, refusing to disturb a decision of the Florida Supreme Court that had declared it unconstitutional for judges to impose death sentences after one or more jurors in the case had voted for life. The ruling effectively ends Florida prosecutors’ efforts to reverse the state court ruling — which could overturn approximately 200 death sentences in the state — requiring that capital sentencing juries…

“The death penalty in Washington is like a zombie, not alive or dead, yet continuing to eat its way through precious resources in the criminal-justice system,” The Seattle Times editorial board declared on May 21, urging the state legislature to end capital punishment. Washington currently has a moratorium on executions, imposed by Governor Jay Inslee in 2014, leading the Times to declare the practice ​“effectively dead.” But because death sentences can still be imposed, and appeals continue for…

No death penalty jury has ever found a defendant charged with intentional murder to be ineligible for the death penalty under Georgia’s intellectual disability law, according to a new empirical study published in Georgia State University Law Review. The study, by Georgia State Law Professor Lauren Sudeall Lucas, examined 30 years of jury verdicts under the state’s Guilty But Mentally Retarded statute, which has the most onerous standard in the nation for proving intellectual disability.

Lush Cosmetics announced on May 15 it has launched a commercial effort to raise awareness about capital punishment and support the abolition of the death penalty. The company’s ​“Death ≠ Justice” campaign includes the release of a short documentary, ​“Exonerated,” which tells the story of Ohio death-row exoneree Kwame Ajamu. Ajamu (then 17 years old), his brother Ronnie Bridgman, and Ricky Jackson were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in 1975. They were exonerated 39 years later in…

In a repudiation of the city’s past history as one of the nation’s leading producers of death sentences, Philadelphia has joined the trend of major national jurisdictions to select reform candidates who have pledged to limit or eliminate use of the death penalty. On May 16, primary voters in the overwhelmingly Democratic city selected long-time civil rights lawyer Lawrence Krasner (pictured) as the Democratic nominee for District Attorney. Krasner, a defense attorney who entered the public’s…

Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice, Louisiana House of Representatives: Testimony on HB 101 – Eliminating the death penalty for offenses committed on or after August 1, 2017 by Robert Brett Dunham, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center (Baton Rouge, May 17, 2017)

On May 13, 2017, James ​“Jimmy” Dennis (pictured, center, with some of his defense team) was released from prison after more than 25 years on Pennsylvania’s death row. His release marked the culmination of three unrelated wrongful capital prosecutions in Philadelphia in the early-1990s, with the common thread a pattern of misconduct by the same two Philadelphia homicide detectives. Dennis, Anthony Wright, and Percy St. George were all capitally charged for murder in cases investigated by…