Publications & Testimony

A feature story in the March issue of Harper’s Magazine explores the growing conservative movement against the death penalty, with a focus on the group Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty and its national advocacy coordinator, Marc Hyden (pictured). Hyden, who previously worked on Republican campaigns and was a field representative for the NRA, explained the genesis of his views against the death penalty. His opposition to the death penalty came from his pro-life beliefs, concerns…

After prison personnel took more than a half hour to set the IV line during Virginia’s January 18 execution of Ricky Gray, the Commonwealth’s Department of Corrections has changed its execution procedures to conduct more of the execution preparations out of view of witnesses. Prior to the change, witnesses watched as the prisoner entered the execution chamber and was strapped to the gurney. A curtain was closed while staff placed intravenous lines and electrodes for a cardiac monitor, then…

Saying that pursuing the death penalty ​“is not in the best interests of this community or in the best interests of justice,” Orange-Osceola County, Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala (pictured) announced on March 16 that her office would not seek the death penalty while she is State Attorney. Ayala — the first black elected prosecutor in Florida — said that as State Attorney, it was her obligation to make policy decisions based on the evidence and that, after reviewing the evidence, she had…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled on March 15 that Alabama death-row prisoner Vernon Madison (pictured) — who was spared execution last May when the U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked at 4 – 4 on whether to lift a stay — is not mentally competent to be executed. The appeals court overturned an Alabama state court ruling, saying that the state court had unreasonably determined the facts when it concluded that Madison was aware of the reasons for his impending execution. ​“The only…

Prosecutorial misconduct, including withholding evidence favorable to the defense, is the most common cause of wrongful convictions in death penalty cases, but prosecutors frequently fail to disclose this evidence, narrowly interpreting the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1963 decision in Brady v. Maryland calling for its disclosure. On March 29, the Court will hear two consolidated cases — Turner v. United States and Overton v. United States — that raise questions under Brady as to when courts should grant…

A study published in The Yale Law Journal provides new evidence that, as public opinion continues to shift away from the death penalty, juries empaneled in capital cases may become even less representative of the community and even more prone to convict. The study — conducted by Professors Brandon Garrett (University of Virginia), Daniel Krauss (Claremont-McKenna College), and Nicholas Scurich (University of California Irvine) — found that with increased public opposition to the death penalty, more…

As U.S. pharmaceutical companies have removed medicines from the market to prevent states from obtaining them for executions, states have turned to alternatives, like the sedative midazolam. Dr. Armin Walser, who was part of the team that invented the drug in the 1970s, is dismayed at that development. ​“I didn’t make it for the purpose” of executing prisoners, Dr. Walser told The New York Times. ​“I am not a friend of the death penalty or execution.” For most of midazolam’s history, the…

A Florida bill that would require the jury to make a unanimous recommendation for death before a judge may impose a death sentence will head to Governor Rick Scott for final approval, after both houses of the Florida legislature passed it by overwhelming margins. Senate Bill 280 passed unanimously (37 – 0) on March 9, and the corresponding House Bill 527 passed by a 112 – 3 vote on March 10. If signed by the governor, the bill will bring Florida into compliance with the Florida Supreme Court’s…

In a new article for the Lewis & Clark Law Review, author Carla Edmondson argues that the future dangerousness inquiry that is implicit in capital setencing determinations ​“is a fundamentally flawed question that leads to arbitrary and capricious death sentences” and because of the ​“persistent influence of future dangerousness … renders the death penalty incompatible with the prohibitions of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments on cruel and unusual punishment.” Edmonson’s article, Nothing is…

On March 7, the United States Supreme Court denied a stay of execution for Texas death-row prisoner Rolando Ruiz, declining to consider his claim that the more than 20 years he had been incarcerated on death row, mostly in solitary confinement, violated the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Ruiz’s lawyers had urged the Court to consider this issue, writing, ​“At this point, a quarter-century has elapsed since Mr. Ruiz committed a contract murder in 1992, two days…