Publications & Testimony

On October 6, Montana District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock (pic­tured) held that the state’s pro­posed lethal injec­tion pro­to­col vio­lat­ed state law, which requires that an ​“ultra fast-act­ing bar­bi­tu­rate” be used in exe­cu­tions. Judge Sherlock said the pro­posed bar­bi­tu­rate, pen­to­bar­bi­tal, does not qual­i­fy as such a…

Eight death-row pris­on­ers whom Arkansas has sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in the next four months have asked a judge to issue a pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tion that would put their exe­cu­tions on hold. They argue that the state’s exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures are uncon­sti­tu­tion­al for mul­ti­ple rea­sons and that Arkansas’ secre­cy law vio­lates a pre­vi­ous set­tle­ment agree­ment between death row inmates and the state. Arkansas, which has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since November 2005, has scheduled eight…

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Williams v. Pennsylvania, a case chal­leng­ing for­mer Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in an appeal of a case that had been tried in Philadelphia while Castille was the city’s dis­trict attor­ney. Terrance Williams (pic­tured) was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in Philadelphia in 1984 for the mur­der of a man pros­e­cu­tors had described to the jury as ​“a kind…

On October 2, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon com­mut­ed the death sen­tence of Kimber Edwards to life with­out parole. Edwards had faced exe­cu­tion on October 6 for the alleged mur­der-for-hire killing of his…

On October 1, Virginia exe­cut­ed Alfredo Prieto (pic­tured) before the U.S. Supreme Court had decid­ed whether to grant a stay on his chal­lenge to Virginia’s use of an exe­cu­tion drug obtained from Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Robert Lee, Prieto’s attor­ney, said, ​“The Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States were con­sid­er­ing Mr. Prieto’s request for a stay of exe­cu­tion but the Virginia Department of Corrections went ahead with the execution…

Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich said he is ​“more open” to the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty after hear­ing Pope Francis’ address to Congress. Gingrich, who con­vert­ed to Catholicism sev­er­al years ago, said he was ​“very impressed” with Pope Francis’ com­ments. In an appear­ance on HuffPost Live, Gingrich high­light­ed the work he has done on crim­i­nal jus­tice reform, say­ing, ​“I very deeply believe we need to pro­found­ly rethink what…

An unusu­al­ly high num­ber of exe­cu­tions are sched­uled for late September and ear­ly October — five states intend to car­ry out six exe­cu­tions in nine days. Pieces in the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post describe the larg­er issues raised by the cas­es in this ​“burst of lethal activ­i­ty.” In the Los Angeles Times, Scott Martelle exam­ined the three exe­cu­tions sched­uled for con­sec­u­tive days in Georgia, Oklahoma, and Virginia, con­clud­ing, ​“So here we have three…

Virginia may exe­cute Alfredo Prieto on October 1 despite con­cerns by dis­abil­i­ty advo­cates that he may be intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled. Governor Terry McAuliffe (pic­tured) announced on September 28 that he would not grant Prieto a reprieve. Gov. McAuliffe issued a state­ment say­ing ​“It is the Governor’s respon­si­bil­i­ty to ensure that the laws of the Commonwealth are prop­er­ly car­ried out unless cir­cum­stances mer­it a stay or com­mu­ta­tion of the…

Defense lawyers have filed a motion in the case of Richard Glossip (pic­tured) alleg­ing that two wit­ness­es who have come for­ward with evi­dence of Glossip’s inno­cence have been intim­i­dat­ed by pros­e­cu­tors. Glossip was sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of Barry Van Treese, based upon the tes­ti­mo­ny of the actu­al killer, Justin Sneed, who was spared the death penal­ty in exhange for tes­ti­fy­ing that Glossip had offered him thou­sands of dol­lars to kill Van…

Former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher and for­mer State Corrections Deputy Director Vanessa O’Donnell have joined the effort to spare Kelly Gissendaner, who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Georgia on September 29 for recruit­ing Gregory Owen, with whom she was roman­ti­cal­ly involved, to mur­der her hus­band. Owen made a deal with pros­e­cu­tors for a life sen­tence and will be eli­gi­ble for parole in 8 years. Justice Fletcher wrote…