Publications & Testimony

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…