Publications & Testimony

Support for the death penal­ty in the United States dropped by two per­cent­age points over the last year and oppo­si­tion rose to its high­est lev­els since before the Supreme Court declared exist­ing death penal­ty statutes uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in 1972, accord­ing to the 2015 annu­al Gallup Poll on the death penal­ty. Gallup reports that 61% of Americans say they favor the death penal­ty, down from 63% last year and near the 40-year low of 60% sup­port record­ed in 2013. Support was 19…

California has enact­ed a new law giv­ing judges greater author­i­ty to remove indi­vid­ual pros­e­cu­tors — and in some instances entire pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al offices — from cas­es if they will­ful­ly with­hold evi­dence from the defense. Passage of the law was prompt­ed by dis­clo­sure of sys­temic mis­use of jail­house infor­mants by Orange County pros­e­cuters, which led Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals (pic­tured) to bar the entire Orange County District Attorney’s…

A group of death row exonerees, includ­ing Kwame Ajamu (pic­tured), held a press con­fer­ence in Cleveland on October 9 in which they called for the end of the death penal­ty. Ajamu — the nation’s 150^th death-row exoneree — was freed from Ohio​’s death row in 2014 along with his broth­er, Wiley Bridgeman, and anoth­er man, Ricky Jackson. The three had been con­vict­ed 39 years ear­li­er on the testimony of…

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argu­ment on October 13 in Hurst v. Florida, a case chal­leng­ing pro­vi­sions in Florida​’s death penal­ty statute that do not require jurors to unan­i­mous­ly agree to the facts that could sub­ject a defen­dant to a death sen­tence or to reach una­nim­i­ty before rec­om­mend­ing that the judge sen­tence a defen­dant to death. Florida is one of just three states that does not require a unan­i­mous jury ver­dict when sentencing…

In an op-ed for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, for­mer cor­rec­tions offi­cial David Rose crit­i­cizes the arbi­trari­ness and dehu­man­iz­ing nature of the death penal­ty. Rose, who spent 30 years work­ing in cor­rec­tions in Pennsylvania, Florida, and New Jersey, said,​“I don’t think the pub­lic real­izes the impact that exe­cu­tions have on the pub­lic ser­vants who are tasked with car­ry­ing them out.” Rose draws on his own expe­ri­ences and those of his col­leagues to describe…

“Over time lethal injec­tion has become only more prob­lem­at­ic and chaot­ic,” Deborah W. Denno, a pro­fes­sor at Fordham Law School, told the New York Times, sum­ma­riz­ing the ongo­ing bat­tles that have led states to adopt new drug sources or alter­na­tive meth­ods of exe­cu­tion. Several states have obtained or sought drugs using sources that may vio­late phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal reg­u­la­tions. For the exe­cu­tion of Alfredo Prieto, Virginia obtained…

A report by The Oklahoman has revealed that Oklahoma vio­lat­ed its exe­cu­tion pro­to­col and used the wrong final drug dur­ing the exe­cu­tion of Charles Warner on January 15, 2015. Warner, whose final words were​“My body is on fire,” was exe­cut­ed using potas­si­um acetate, the same drug that was deliv­ered for Richard Glossip’s abort­ed exe­cu­tion on September 30. The drug called for in the pro­to­col is potas­si­um chlo­ride. Glossip’s exe­cu­tion was stayed…

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…

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…

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…